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Biden Insider: This Is Who Pulled Biden’s Strings Behind the Scenes | Lindy Li

The Rubin Report12:33

Transcription

What I will say is people were kept in the dark about the timing of the um announcement, including the highest echelons of the United States government. For example, Anita Dunn, whom I worked in close concert with, had no idea. She did a conference call that morning telling people that we would stay the course, that they would stay the course. And so she had only like a minute heads up that the announcement was coming. And I have to, I can't stress enough how high up Anita Dunn was. She was basically part of the council presidents. Dave, we didn't have a president in the past. We had a council of these unelected people that you've never even heard of. And they're Anita Dunn, Mike Don, and Steve Foretti. Three of them were running the country. I most Americans, I would say maybe like 1% if that have heard of them.

Were were you hearing, you kind of implied this before, but were you hearing grumblings about how it was going to go down or when it was going to go down? Or were there different factions in the White House that you know, there was it sort of seemed like, okay, maybe Joe didn't know exactly what to do or wasn't aware, but Jill kind of wanted him to stay versus some of the people that just wanted him to just get into the office of the presidency. So then he could step down because people kind of thought Kamala was no good. Like what of what level or what did you see in all of that?

Dave, you're right over target. I will adjust what you said though. Jill didn't kind of want him to stay. Jill desperately wanted him to stay. And please bear in mind that during this time Biden had COVID and Hunter was basically sitting in on White House meetings, high-level meetings that require security clearances. This guy is a honestly, I'm not even entirely sure if he's a recovering drug addict. Um, they did find cocaine at the White House in an area that he was one of the few people that was in. Yeah. Exactly. And it's undeniable that he peddled his influence to enrich himself in the big guy, quote unquote. So this is a guy sitting in the Oval Office listening in on top-level White House meetings throughout this time, throughout the month of July. And I know because my friends are senior aids and you know, to like Steve Rashetti and Nina Dunn. Um, so Biden was like incapacitated this entire time because he was really sick. And remember that a few days before Trump suffered the assassination attempt. So people were freaking out. Mhm. They, they rightly thought that the election was over. How do you beat a guy like that? And the way that he handled that with such self-possession, I would have been freaking out. I would have been hysterical on stage. No, no, it was no, no, it was incredible watching him that moment of composure and everything else. Yeah. Right. I mentioned that because Democrats were in in complete disarray would be putting it mildly and this is the thing that people don't understand or they don't even know and it hasn't been reported. There was no money coming in other than the monthly recurring ActBlue donations that they trick you into giving, obviously. But this is not an exaggeration. There was no money coming in after the debate. Like I mean zero, right? There were staffers who I would just be like shooting with on the sofa because they had nothing to do and we would just be commiserating because everybody lost faith. So Biden kind of markets his decision as an act of patriotism. It wasn't. There was no money coming in. So there's no way he would have continued. There's just no way.

Do you have any, putting the money part aside, and everyone knows he was having huge fundraisers with George Clooney and Obama not too long before, not too long before the debate, but putting the money part aside, do you have any insider info as to what the day or two before he stepped down was like? I mean, we keep hearing that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, you know, basically got him behind closed doors. There's that other story about um how he, they would hide him from people that were trying to get in. Mike Johnson told Barry Weiss that story about how for months they kept delaying meetings and it was just sort of becoming obvious. But do you have any any uh insider stuff on those few days before? Like what was it like when they finally got him to do that if Jill was really pushing him to keep going?

Yeah. And I want to say I first hinted at this on the Shawn Ryan show and then suddenly that new book that's coming out, "Fight," I hate even mentioning, I don't want to give them free advertising, but they were repeating something that I already said two months ago, like it's some new intel. I, I will expand on that. The role of Congressman James Clyburn has been seriously underestimated in the public sphere. He played such a huge role in so many instances of Biden's recent life, starting with his 2020 campaign. If it hadn't been James Clyburn, there would have been no Biden presidency. I want to be extremely clear about that because he came in fifth in New Hampshire. He was done and he bombed in Iowa, too. Dave, do you remember this? Yeah. Well, I, they were basically trying to push him out and bring Mike Bloomberg in and then that thing blew up. Exactly. How many delegates did he win? That was anyway. Um, so James Clyburn saved his butt by endorsing him and allowing him to win the South Carolina primary. If it hadn't been his intervention, Biden would have been done. And that was the point at which Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and everyone Theodore work or rally around him. That was Clyburn. Clyburn is also the person that made him appoint Brown Jackson. The woman, the woman who can't say what who a woman is. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Hired because she or nominated because she was a woman, just doesn't know what a woman is. Exactly. And let's just be very clear, all these people are DEI candidates. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Kamala Harris is picked also largely because of James Clyburn. And James Clyburn, the reason why I'm bringing it up now is that Biden's original intention, which I, Biden's original intention was to not endorse Kamala that day at all. And he would just roll it out at his own leisurely pace. He wanted this stage to himself to make bas, basically make a victory lap and you know, luxuriate in all the love and admiration that he thought he deserved. But James Clyburn insisted, actually, he wanted Biden to endorse her in the first tweet. There were two tweets separated by half an hour. But the fact that Biden endorsed her so quickly afterwards was because of James.

So, so what is the influence that James had over Biden that had South Carolina that salvation because there would be no presidency were it not for Clyburn and he kind of flies under the radar but Clyburn is at every major fundraiser. Um, we, I always see him at VIP events. He has his youngest-looking wife. I forget her name and the two of them would just be there like meandering the crowd. They're always there. I hosted Biden-Harris here in Philadelphia in February 2023. Clyburn is there. I raised half a million for them um in September right after the debate in DC and Clyburn is there. He's there everywhere just exerting a quiet influence and I'm just, I'm genuinely shocked that the public hasn't caught on. So, so what's the connection between Clyburn and what more, what most people seem to think or at least the people who are talking about this, which that it was this Pelosi-Schumer game? What's, what's the connection there?

Um, Clyburn was a Biden loyalist to the last. I bring up the Clyburn thing is because he is a source of a lot of the DEI that came out of the Biden administration. Um, he, he wields tremendous power. The people who most, you're right in that Pelosi and actually Adam Schiff, another person who really um wanted Biden out, they worked hand in hand and honestly, I wanted Biden out and I'm going to be honest with you, I checked in, I texted Adam Schiff right before I went on Fox News Sunday, just like saying, here's a heads up, I'm going to ask that the president step down. Are you okay with that? You know, at that time, you know, I can't really, as a member of the party, you don't just freelance. Okay. I had a duty to make sure that everyone on the team knew what I was doing.

So, did Clyburn have something to do with ultimately pushing him out in the most specific way I can possibly ask that? Yes. In that he made his wishes known before Biden dropped out that he wanted Kamala Harris. That was very telling. And Clyburn, unlike Biden, is in full control of his mental faculties. He wouldn't say something just to say something. He picks his words very carefully. And the fact that he came out and said, "If Biden drops out, I would support Kamala." The fact that he said that at all was a huge tell and we all heard it. And that provided the quote unquote permission structure. The rest of us. He wasn't as obvious as the Schumers and the Pelosis of the world. Of course not. But he definitely at that point, we were all so fed up, so angry at Biden. And the only people who honestly wanted him to stay were those on his payroll and those with the last name Biden.

All right. And I do want to get to the Kamala portion of this. And you've ex, you've really, I would say, uncovered a lot of the nonsense that we could, we could all see was happening with the campaign and the ridiculousness, ridiculousness of it and then some of your own political evolution. But just to fully get there, do, so do you have any insight into what happened on the day that Biden stepped down? I mean, was there a meeting? It seems that there was likely a meeting, I'm trying to word this totally correctly, that there was likely a meeting with Schumer, Pelosi, at least, and Joe and Jill Biden. And it seems that Joe Biden wanted to continue. That's what he told the ladies of the view. He did not continue. So, do you have any insight into what happened that day?

That day, um, I don't think Pelosi was in in person with him. I don't, uh, I think Schumer had visited him days before and it was much to, you know, much to his consternation, it basically failed. Biden was stubborn AF, um, as always, and he was sick throughout this time. So, uh, mind you, there weren't many people visiting him. He had COVID. Um, also that was a convenient excuse for him to hunker down. Um, what I will say is people were kept in the dark about the timing of the um, announcement, including the highest echelons of the United States government. For example, Anita Dunn, whom I worked in close concert with, had no idea. She did a conference call that morning telling people that we would stay the course, that they would stay the course. And so she had only like a minute heads up that the announcement was coming. And I have to, I can't stress enough how high up Anita Dunn was. She was basically part of the council presidents. Dave, we didn't have a president in the past, right? We had a council of these unelected people that you've never even heard of, and they're Anita Dunn, Mike Don, and Steve Rashetti. Three of them were running the country. I most Americans, I would say maybe like 1% if that have heard of them.

Right. So, just to be clear, you don't know who was in the room when he made that final decision. If we're to believe Shetty, Mike Donan, and his family. Oh, so you do know? Yeah. I, I'm just saying that Nancy Pelosi wasn't there on that day. Yeah. Got it. And by the time they hated her so much, they continue to hate her so much. It's just, it's, I don't think that it's something that can be amended at this point. There's so much animosity. Um, and I also want to mention that team Harris and team Biden hated each other like throughout, not just the final year, but throughout.

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