Who Ran the White House?

During the last months of Joe Biden’s presidency, he obviously was not fit to serve as president. So who ran the White House during that time?

Lindy Li is a former Democratic National Committee insider who was heavily involved in Kamala Harris’s campaign. Li answers that question:

According to Li, Joe Biden, already staggering from public scrutiny, effectively lost control of the White House after that fateful debate [with Donald Trump in June 2024]. The event reportedly prompted an audacious power shuffle at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—one spearheaded by none other than Hunter Biden.

Li alleges that, following Biden’s disastrous debate drubbing, Hunter essentially took over White House operations. Speaking with podcaster Shawn Ryan, she painted a picture of dysfunction at the highest levels of government: “After the [CNN] debate, Hunter basically commandeered the White House. He sat in on all of the White House top-level meetings. We had a former cocaine addict sitting in on the most sensitive meetings of the most consequential and most important government in world history. Does that sit right with you?”

Ryan’s immediate reaction—“No”—reflected what many are surely thinking.

“Without security clearance mind you,” Li added.

That is consistent with other accounts that have documented Hunter’s ubiquitous presence in meetings during the last seven months of Biden’s term. Li’s account has a ring of truth, but it leaves unanswered a larger question.

In my opinion, there never was a time during Biden’s administration when he was more than a figurehead. He was unfit to serve as president as of 2020, which is why he ran a basement campaign while Donald Trump crisscrossed the country. While Biden’s condition was not as dire in 2021 as it was in 2024, I believe he was more or less a puppet from the opening days of his administration. The question is, whose puppet?

Barack Obama is the most common answer to that question. Obama, unlike other ex-presidents, did not retire to the place he came from. Instead, he stayed on in Washington, and he did not retire. Still a relatively young man, he stayed active in Democratic Party affairs. Active enough, many think, to be the real power behind the throne. But who carried out Obama’s wishes in the White House?

Lindy Li answers that question in this interview. She names names. Take it for what it is worth, but again, to me it has the ring of truth:

As noted above, Li was involved in Kamala Harris’s campaign. That campaign was a dumpster fire, but it was a dumpster full of cash. Here, Li describes the millions that the Harris campaign paid to celebrities and “newsmen,” to approximately zero effect.