A former senior aide to President Joe Biden has acknowledged that the administration engaged in “gaslighting” the American public by downplaying concerns over the president’s age and cognitive fitness during his 2024 re-election campaign.

Michael LaRosa, a former White House official and longtime press secretary for First Lady Jill Biden, revealed that the campaign was aware “from day one” that the then-81-year-old president’s age was a major issue. However, they publicly dismissed such concerns while internally taking extreme precautions to limit Biden’s unscripted interactions with the press and the public.

“Cover-up is a little harsh,” LaRosa said Wednesday at an American University seminar, but admitted: “There was a lot of denial of the polling… and I will use the term gaslighting because that’s what they were doing.”

Throughout the campaign, Biden’s increasing verbal slip-ups, moments of confusion, and physical stumbles fueled growing voter concerns about his mental sharpness and ability to serve another term. Despite the White House’s repeated assurances of his good health, LaRosa admitted that behind closed doors, Biden’s team was deeply worried about exposing him to unstructured media appearances.

“The president’s team was scared to death of impromptu, unscripted, unrehearsed, unpracticed, unchoreographed—anything,” LaRosa said. “They couldn’t compete for the attention economy.”

He painted a picture of a campaign in which aides had more faith in managing Biden’s image than in Biden himself, saying: “Biden would have done anything. He loves TV. He loves doing stuff. It was the orbit that did not trust their own candidate.”

Biden ultimately dropped out of the 2024 race, endorsing his then-vice president Kamala Harris after continued polling freefalls and pressure from within the party over his ability to lead.

LaRosa’s comments came in response to a question about a new book co-authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper, which reportedly details the Biden administration’s extensive efforts to obscure the president’s cognitive struggles. Tapper, who had frequently dismissed such concerns while covering the campaign, is now facing backlash for allegedly shielding the administration from scrutiny while privately documenting its internal panic.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)