In private, President Joe Biden is prone to yelling, according to administration officials.
Current and former Biden aides have said they have witnessed various explicit phrases being yelled from the president.
“No one is safe,” said one official when noting that senior and lower-level aides may be caught in the middle of Biden’s temper.
The description is a far cry from the president’s public appearance as a benevolent, ice cream-loving man.
“There’s no question that the Biden temper is for real. It may not be as volcanic as Bill Clinton’s, but it’s definitely there,” said “The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House” author Chris Whipple.
Some have said that Biden’s temper is a sign of respect, while others say that it can be years before one learns to understand the president’s moods.
Reporting from Axios:
Jeff Connaughton, a former Biden campaign and Senate aide who was chief of staff to Kaufman when he filled Biden's seat in the Senate, wrote about Biden's temper in his 2012 book on Washington corruption, "The Payoff: Why Wall Street Wins." Connaughton wrote that as a senator, Biden was an "egomaniacal autocrat … determined to manage his staff through fear." ... Connaughton told Axios that Biden "hides his sharper edge to promote his folksy Uncle Joe image — which is why, when flashes of anger break through, it seems so out of public character."
