Following President Joe Biden’s public collapse during his disastrous debate performance on CNN, current and former advisers to the president have finally broken ranks and anonymously pointed fingers. Alex Thompson asserts that there was no coincidence in the “public split screen” between the slack-jawed and unintelligible octogenarian on Thursday and the reasonably skilled campaigner who inspired rally attendees on Friday afternoon.
Thompson claims that “Biden’s errors and shortcomings are more commonplace inside the White House.” Which of the two Bidens will show up depends on the time of day. Biden is consistently busy from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and many of his public appearances in front of cameras take place during those times. Aides told Axios that Biden is more likely to make grammatical errors and get tired when he is not in that window of time or when he is traveling overseas.
When you consider that Biden has taken vacation time for 40% of his presidency in addition to his six-hour workweek, our own Zachary Faria raises an excellent issue.
Not only is Biden working exactly half as long as his forebears did, but he is also working a fraction of the time that regular Americans put in each day at work.
A 30-hour workweek is equivalent to working six hours a day, five days a week. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time employees reported working an average of 8.5 hours every day, or around 42 hours per week. Stated differently, Biden works only 71% of the hours that other full-time employees do.
Furthermore, unlike most American workers, Biden gets to work from home. This means that his 10 a.m. start time isn’t due to a difficult journey through D.C. traffic, but rather because he is unable or unwilling to start the day sooner.
The agendas of Biden’s forerunners demonstrate how demanding the presidency should be and provide a clear comparison. Notably, Donald Trump sleeps for as little as four or five hours a night, rising before six in the morning both as president and during the campaign trail, and going to bed after midnight. After openly criticizing himself for rarely attending public meetings until 11 a.m., Trump would start his official workday at the White House at 8 a.m. and would come home at roughly 6 p.m. Like Trump, Barack Obama began his workday at 8:30 or 9 a.m., returned home at 6:30 p.m., and worked until midnight or later. Obama also worked out for 45 minutes every morning. With his days planned in 10-minute blocks, George W. Bush would arrive at the Oval Office at 7 a.m. and conclude his workday at 6 p.m.
Together, Trump, Obama, and Bush put in around twelve hours a day at work—even with the less structured reading and tweeting during the first and last hours of 44 and 45 of their workdays. Although you may like or dislike them, they worked hard at their jobs.
The significance of the comparison lies not in the fact that previous presidents worked tirelessly, but rather in the fact that America’s enemies are constantly on the move these days, and Biden’s advancing age has already sparked global debate. As recently as October 7, 2021, the president completely vanished from the public eye for a full day while Hamas massacred thousands of Israelis. And in the summer of 2021, yours truly called for a discussion on the 25th Amendment after going missing for a week during his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Because of his policies, Biden is unable to send even a simple personal email before sunrise or after sundown. Not only does this belittle those of us who have to work longer hours to make ends meet, but it also puts the free world at real risk, as many now believe our leader is sleeping while our enemies strategize.
