Who Is In Charge Of Joe Biden’s Campaign?

During a Town Hall event, Joe Biden was asked by Lester Holt if Mr. Biden personally called President Donald Trump to wish him well during a recent medical crisis. Here are the exact words which were said:

Holt: “I know you offered your good wishes to the President and the First Lady. Did you pick up the phone? Did you call the President?”

Biden: “No. I… I… I did… I inquired whether I should do that and it was… and it was uh… the decision was that would probably be intrusive, but I’m truly happy that if he appears to be if things are really moving along like he said and particularly the First Lady as well, I, I, I’m very happy for them.”

Mr. Biden answered by stating he “inquired” of someone other than Mr. Biden as to what course of action Mr. Biden should take upon hearing President Trump was ill.

“whether I should do that” – Mr. Biden suggested a course of action to the decision maker. The word “that” is a distancer, pushing the referenced item away from the speaker, indicating Mr. Biden was not fond of “that”. Most likely, “that” refers to phoning President Trump and/or offering good wishes, but we cannot be absolutely sure as Mr. Biden does not define the reference.

“and it was… and it was uh…” – Mr. Biden stammered as he struggled to complete the sentence with a phrasing he was internally rejecting. Most likely, Mr. Biden was about to say, “it was decided”, but determined to discard this phrasing and replace it with “the decision was”. The new phrase is not any better as both phrases indicate someone other than Mr. Biden made this decision.

“the decision was” – this phrase tells us Mr. Biden did not make this decision. This decision was made by someone other than Mr. Biden.

“that would probably be intrusive” – the word “that” is again used, apparently referencing the same course action as referenced by “that” in the previous sentence. It seems as if phoning the President and/or offering good wishes was deemed by someone with power over Mr. Biden as “intrusive”, although we do not know to whom such actions would be “intrusive”. The word “probably” indicates this was a very weak reason as “probably” is a word which weakens the word it references, in this case “intrusive”. It is “probably” “intrusive”, but maybe not intrusive at all.

Mr. Biden appears to answer the question of whether he personally phoned President Trump by stating Mr. Biden had to ask permission of someone else to do so and permission was denied due to the reason calling or good wishing might possibly be construed by someone as intrusive. However, this is not what Mr. Biden actually said. The reality is Mr. Biden said the “decision was that would probably be intrusive”, entirely omitting what was decided about calling the President. Reaching a determination an action may be intrusive does not indicate if a decision was made about taking the action.

There are a lot of conclusions which could be drawn from the language employed by Mr. Biden. Here are a few:

1. Mr. Biden must ask permission before taking an action as part of his own campaign. Mr. Biden is not the ultimate decision maker of his campaign. Someone other than Mr. Biden is making decisions for Mr. Biden.
2. Mr. Biden did not want to call or offer good wishes to President Trump.
3. Whoever is making decisions for the Biden campaign did not want Mr. Biden to call or offer good wishes to President Trump.