Tyler Pager on Calling President Biden and the 2024 Election

The Unconventional Call to President Biden

• 📞 Tyler Pager, a White House Correspondent for The New York Times, details his experience obtaining and making a direct cell phone call to President Biden.
• 📚 Pager sought the interview for his book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and Democrats Have Lost America," after Biden's aids repeatedly rejected his requests, citing a conflict with a memoir.
• 📱 Pager obtained Biden's personal cell number in March 2025 and called him, with Biden eventually returning the call later that day.
• 🚆 The initial call was brief, with Biden stating he was about to have dinner and asking Pager to call back the next day; the second call, while Biden was boarding an Amtrak train, also yielded only two brief answers before he ended the conversation.
• ☎️ Shortly after the first call, Pager was inundated with calls and texts from Biden's aids, and two days later, the number he had called was disconnected.

Biden's Availability and Press Engagement

• 📉 Pager contrasts Biden's limited availability with President Trump's tendency to pick up calls from many people.
• 📰 Throughout his presidency, Biden never granted an interview to The New York Times, The Washington Post, or The Wall Street Journal, relying instead on intermittent TV interviews.
• 🏛️ Pager notes that while Biden's team cited memoir writing as a reason for not granting interviews, he believes there was a broader culture of unavailability.

Voter Concerns and Biden's Age

• 📊 Pager addresses criticisms that reporting on Biden's age was only amplified after debates, stating that polling data from before the 2022 midterms showed a majority of voters, including Democrats, had concerns about his age and fitness for a second term.
• 🗣️ He emphasizes that these concerns were consistently voiced by Democratic voters on the campaign trail and by other lawmakers.
• 🤝 Despite these concerns, many of Biden's close advisors, like Mike Donilon, believed he was fit to serve and could have defeated Trump, viewing pressure for him to drop out as "insanity."

Transparency and Presidential Health

• ❓ Pager discusses the inherent challenge of reporting on a president's health due to patient-doctor privilege and secrecy.
• 📜 He notes that while customs like releasing physical reports exist, there's no legal obligation for presidents to disclose medical information, and they can easily discontinue such practices.
• ⚖️ Both Republicans and Democrats are increasingly calling for more transparency regarding the health of lawmakers, particularly the president.

The Trend of Presidential Memoirs

• 📚 Pager highlights that beyond Biden's reported $10 million deal for his memoir, Kamala Harris and Karine Jean-Pierre are also writing books, indicating a trend of senior Biden officials publishing their accounts.
• ✍️ These memoirs aim to shape legacy, shed light on decision-making, and often involve "settling scores" or recasting narratives in a more favorable light.
• 🎯 Karine Jean-Pierre's book, for instance, reportedly focuses on criticizing the Democratic Party for abandoning Joe Biden, suggesting a narrative that the party erred in pressuring him to withdraw.