Even Biden Aides Shocked at President’s Decline in Debate—Report

President Joe Biden's faltering performance in Thursday’s first televised debate—an old man showing his age—reportedly came as as much of a shock to White House staff as it did to voters who have to choose between him and Donald Trump this November. Insiders tell Axios that Biden has been so shielded from view during his time in the White House that many former and current staff were “shocked at the 81-year-old president's limitations at the debate Thursday night.” According to its report, Jill Biden's top aides took steps early in his term “to essentially rope off the president”—even from those employed to look after him in the official White House residence. “The separation between the family and the residence staff was so big, so divided,” one former official in the residence said. “It’s not supposed to be and usually isn’t, even in the Trump White House.” A White House official said the president “is deeply appreciative of the residence staff’s work, but is unused to being waited on regularly or having butlers, so some staff are often allowed to go home early.”