Biden hires veteran Democrat communicator as former president aims to defend tarnished reputation
As Joe Biden faces incoming fire not only from President Donald Trump but also fellow Democrats, the former president is bringing on board a veteran strategist and communicator to help furbish his reputation and legacy.
The former president has hired Chris Maegher, a Biden administration veteran, to help him now that the first 100 days of Trump’s second tour of duty in the White House has passed, sources confirm to Fox News.
Former presidents have traditionally refrained from criticizing their successors during the first 100-days period of the new administration.
But in a sign that Biden is looking to reengage publicly, he’ll make a live appearance on “The View” talk show on Thursday, and sources confirm that Meagher had a hand in arranging the segment.
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Earlier this week, in his first interview since Trump’s inauguration three and a half months ago, Biden sat down with the BBC.
Biden’s reentering into the political and media spotlight may not sit well with many Democrats, who thank the former president for the plethora of policies passed during his single term in the White House but who continue to blame him for last November’s election setbacks and who want fresh faces to lead the party as it aims to exit the political wilderness.
The media appearances by Biden come as his White House successor continues to blast and belittle the former president over a host of issues.
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And it comes as the Trump administration, according to a Politico report, is working to release audio of Biden’s interview with then-special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents and raised questions about the then-president’s mental acuity in a February 2024 report.
Biden made history in his 2020 White House defeat of Trump as the oldest person ever elected U.S. president. And Hur’s report amplified questions about whether the then-81-year-old, who at the time was running for re-election, had the physical and mental stamina to serve another four years in the White House.
Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump last June further exacerbated his problems and fueled a chorus of calls from fellow Democrats for him to step down as the Democrats’ 2024 standardbearer.
Biden eventually succumbed to the pressure and dropped his re-election bid in late July, with then-Vice President Kamala Harris succeeding him as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
Biden continues to face criticism from fellow Democrats for staying too long in the 2024 White House race.
Asked in the BBC interview if he should have dropped his re-election bid earlier than he did, the former president said, “I don’t think it would have mattered.”
“It was a hard decision,” Biden said. “I think it was the right decision.”
The former president also used the interview to blast Trump for singlehandily renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, for his repeated comments about acquiring Greenland or taking control of the Panama Canal, and for continuously saying Canada should become America’s 51st state.
“What the hell’s going on here? What president ever talks like that? That’s not who we are,” Biden said. “We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity, not about confiscation.”
He also pilloried Trump’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war as “modern-day appeasement.”
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Meagher is a longtime operative and strategist with both political and private sector experience on his resume. He’s a veteran of the Democratic National Committee, former Sen. John Tester of Montana’s successful 2018 reflection, and Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign, when the longshot for the Democratic nomination soared to major contender status.
During the Biden administration, Meagher briefly served under then-Transportation Secretary Buttigieg before moving to the White House as a deputy press secretary and later to the Pentagon as Defense Department spokesperson.
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