Angry and stunned Democrats blame Biden’s closest advisers for shielding public from full extent of president’s decline

CNN —

At a star-studded fundraiser for President Joe Biden in Los Angeles last month, George Clooney wasn’t the only one who came away concerned about the president.

Even before Biden made remarks that night, whispers of concern rippled through the audience at the Peacock Theater about the president who had just arrived from a long flight from Italy. Some of the biggest donors at the $30 million fundraising event, who had waited in line to take pictures with Biden, expressed unease at how the president looked and carried himself.

“He was less cogent than usual,” said one attendee, who was surprised that during a smaller meeting with donors before the main event, Biden barely spoke. Instead, this person said, he left virtually all of the talking to former President Barack Obama, which struck some guests as unusual for a loquacious politician like Biden.

Biden’s appearance in California struck attendees as starkly different from a fundraising gala he attended in March at Radio City Music Hall in New York, one Democrat guest told CNN, when Biden appeared on stage with Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

“There is a marked difference in the president from the spring to the summer,” a senior Democrat told CNN. “He’s just not the same.”

Back in Washington, there have been clear signs throughout his term of Biden being increasingly stage-managed, with lists of talking points, names of questioners and drawings of where he should walk presented to him by aides. Ahead of closed-door Cabinet meetings that Biden attends, it is customary for Cabinet officials to submit questions and key talking points that they plan to present in front of Biden ahead of time to White House aides, two sources with direct knowledge told