Biden ‘Opted for Photo Shoot With Annie Leibovitz Rather Than Critical Meeting’
A new book has revealed that after President Biden’s disastrous televised debate with Donald Trump, he flew for a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz rather than meeting with the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Ron Klain was Biden’s Aide from 2021 to 2023 before joining the president again as he prepared to debate President Trump. In an explosive new book entitled Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, he tells author Chris Whipple that after the CNN debate on June 27, 2024, Biden opted to fly to Camp David for a photo shoot with Vogue photographer Leibovitz.
“You need to cancel that,” Klain told the president, according to The Guardian which has obtained a copy of the book. “You need to stay in Washington. You need to have an aggressive plan to fight and to rally the troops.”
Klain wanted Biden to meet with the progressive Democrats in a bid to secure their endorsement, which he saw as key to Biden’s chances of remaining the Democratic nominee. Klain tells Whipple that Biden initially relented and agreed to meet with the group.
“But the president’s resolve didn’t last,” the book says. “That weekend, Biden and his family were at Camp David having their pictures taken.” The photographer the Bidens were meeting was none other than Annie Leibovitz.
Despite the Vogue August 2024 edition featuring the First Lady Jill Biden on the front cover, there is no Leibovitz-attributed pictures inside the edition and no pictures of Joe. There is an editor’s note that mentions the calamitous June 27 debate, in which Dr. Jill Biden says the family “will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president. We will continue to fight.”
Leibovitz has captured photos of Jill and Joe earlier in his presidency that were published in Vogue. She also photographed Biden in 2017.
Klain says he called Biden on June 28 and told him bluntly: “Look, we’re hemorrhaging badly. We need to get the progressive caucus to the White House this weekend. And you need to agree with them on an agenda for a second term, and they will endorse you. So you can walk out there with one hundred members of Congress saying, ‘You should stay in the race.’”
Although Biden initially backed down, he decided to go to Camp David for the photo shoot after all, much to the annoyance of Klain. Biden bowed out the race on July 21.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
