Media outlets have been obtaining leaks from the upcoming book This Will Not Pass, a historical account of Joe Biden’s first year as president.
Fox News Digital obtained a new excerpt on Monday… and it spelled trouble for the White House and Democrats.
Public Engagement Director Cedric Richmond pulled no punches about who he called the “f***ing idiots” on the left-wing of the party: Democrat Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Richmond reportedly made the comment during a phone call to a friend after the 2020 election.
He apparently grew frustrated with these two lawmakers for failing to learn the right lessons from the campaign trail.
Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti made a similar, softer remark during the negotiations for the American Rescue Plan, according to Fox’s review of the excerpt. He reportedly told a Biden ally, “Problem with the left is they don’t understand that they lost.”
Ricchetti has been working for Biden since his second term as vice president.
Richmond has a shorter record. He ranked as one of the most junior members of a White House dominated by holdovers from the Obama administration.
Already, Richmond was struggling to integrate himself into Biden’s circle of more senior aides. He looked like “an island unto himself,” one Biden aide told Politico Wednesday.
Naturally, he suffered more blowback than Ricchetti over his remark.
On the same day as the leaked report, Richmond told CNN that he would leave the White House to take an unspecified role at the Democratic National Committee.
It’s not a good sign that Biden has struggled to retain one of the few advisors under the age of 50, especially given his recent polling woes among young people.
Still, Richmond remains confident.
“I am thrilled that the president has entrusted me with helping boost the robust work already being done at the DNC to make sure that Democrats grow their majorities in the House and Senate, and increase the number of Democratic governors in state capitals around the country,” Richmond said in a statement to CNN Monday.
The upcoming book, written by The New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, is scheduled to hit shelves on May 3.
The Times has already published other excerpts, along with a snippet of a bombshell phone call from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.
In a statement, McCarthy criticized the book rollout as “profiting from manufactured political intrigue.”
The Horn editorial team