Joe Biden reportedly has a volcanic temper and often swears at his aides.

 

Joe Biden. New York Post/Reuters. 

Joe Biden reportedly has a volcanic temper and often swears at his aides. New York Post. Biden often yells and swears at his aides to the point where many are afraid to meet with him alone. One senior aide even said that nobody was safe from Biden's tirades. One notable incident involved his former "Covid Czar" and current chief of staff Jeff Zients who had failed to secure testing kits when Omicron was spreading. The reaming that Zients got is still talked about among staffers today. Reports of Biden's temper are nothing new as there are reports of him ruling his staff with fear as far back as 2008. Biden's private behavior is at contrast with his public image and his promises to fire people who mistreated others during his administration. 

The original Axios report can be found here. 

My Comment:

This is one of those thing that is widely known but not something that has permeated to the general public. I personally always thought that Biden was, quite frankly, an asshole. I still remember the VP debate he had with Paul Ryan. Ryan, despite all his faults, was a better person during that debate but Biden was a jerk throughout the debate. 

A lot of people are saying that Biden's explosive temper is a sign of his falling into dementia. That is certainly possible, but like I said, Biden was known to be a jerk long before his mind started to fade. Without knowing exactly what goes on behind the scenes it's impossible to know if his actions now are worse than they are before. 

That being said, inappropriate anger is a sign of dementia. Given Biden's advanced age and his recent behavior there is already a strong circumstantial case that Biden is suffering from the disease. His anger could be another symptom of this but again, it could just be who he is as a person. 

Biden also seems to be the opposite of Donald Trump, who has a public image of being a very combative person but is known to be kind and attentive in his personal interactions with people (as long as they do what he wants). Biden has an image, at least in his supportive media, as an ice cream loving kindly old grandpa but is apparently an absolute jerk in person. 

Regardless, Biden's temper isn't too relevant in terms of how good of a president is. Unfortunately, Biden's a terrible president due to policy and effectiveness. Biden's screwed up just about everything he touches which is way more important than if he blows up on his staff. 

But I do think it's another example of how much of a hypocrite Biden is about things. Biden famously promised to fire people if they mistreated others on his staff and he has gone through with that threat at least once. But he's allowed to treat his staffers like crap and swear at them? Again, how he treats his staff isn't too relevant but this goes against what Biden is supposedly standing for.  

Finally, I have to say, unrelated to the story itself, is the fact that I hate the way Axios formats there articles. Instead of an actual narrative they just make everything a bunch of bullet points. I guess I'm not in position to criticize anyone about format but even still I don't like it.