Politico reports:

Joe Biden is in reputation management mode, hiring a veteran campaign and communications strategist to help burnish his legacy at a time when many in his party want him to exit the stage.

In a sign of Biden’s intent to remain engaged publicly, his inner circle tapped Chris Meagher, a former Biden deputy press secretary and Defense Department spokesperson, to help him transition past the first 100 days of the Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the hire and granted anonymity to speak freely.

Meagher, who has worked for former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, played an instrumental role in booking Biden’s appearance on The View on Thursday, the people said, his first live interview since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

It is a critical time for Biden, who has come under heavy criticism from Democrats for staying in the presidential race as long as he did last year.

At the same time, Biden finds himself buffeted by both sides: The Trump administration is making plans to release the audio of Biden’s interview with Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents and raised questions about his mental acuity, POLITICO reported on Wednesday. The recordings — the release of which remains in flux — have long been sought by Trump’s Republican allies to tarnish him. While the transcripts were released long ago, Biden’s allies fear the audio could be used by Republicans in an attempt to further damage his legacy — one of several reasons for bringing on Meagher.

Kelly Scully, a former special assistant and deputy press secretary to Biden, has been Biden’s lone spokesperson post presidency. But her tenure as a government employee dispatched to Biden ends soon.

The timing of Biden’s appearance on The View is notable because it comes after the 100-day mark, a period in which former presidents have typically avoided criticizing their predecessors. Now Biden can take on Trump more directly, the people said. It is also a venue he has often retreated to at fraught moments dating back to 2007, including his first interview after launching his 2020 presidential run and last September as the first sitting president to do so, during which he called Trump a “loser.”

That Thursday’s interview will air live could be exonerating or perilous for Biden, or perhaps somewhere in between. Ultimately, it is a chance for him to rebut criticism that he is in decline.

“If he’s doing these interviews and he’s having a lot of the same verbal gaffes, there should be a conversation if continuing to do interviews helps or hurts him,” said Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic consultant. “But if Biden goes and does the interviews, we see a rested and relaxed and thoughtful Biden, that could play very well.”

The Hur audio has been a source of extreme sensitivity for Biden’s allies, after Hur described his interview with Biden as revealing a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” While Hur last year issued a report concluding he would not bring criminal charges against Biden, the former president at the time asserted executive privilege to block the release of the tapes. He and his Justice Department claimed releasing them would have a chilling effect on witnesses cooperating in high-profile investigations.

Biden has already begun inching back onto the national stage with several speeches and appearances this spring.

In an interview with the BBC, released on Wednesday, Biden gave a scathing assessment of Trump’s administration, calling Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine give up territory as a part of a peace deal with Russia “modern-day appeasement” and possibility of a NATO alliance break-up a “grave concern.”

“I found it sort of beneath America in the way that it took place,” Biden said of Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Biden also suggested that he had no regrets about the timing of his decision to drop out of the 2024 campaign, which many Democrats believe set Kamala Harris back in her own presidential campaign. Biden said he didn’t think “it would have mattered” if he had dropped out earlier, describing Harris as a “good candidate” who was “fully-funded.”

That analysis of the 2024 election isn’t sitting well with some Democrats.

“There are a lot of young and dynamic leaders in the Democratic Party who are focused on the path forward, and it’s better we focus on them, instead of an old man trying to convince himself and America he isn’t responsible for Donald Trump’s reelection,” said one Democratic operative, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. [Continue reading…]