The two-plus weeks Biden has spent with just his German Shepherd for company have proved some of the weightiest of his presidency, with his once-bleak legislative fortunes enjoying a surprise turnabout and his foreign policy shaken by events across the globe.
Even some White House staffers said they felt a certain degree of whiplash, and Biden himself has mused to confidants at the sudden turn of events.
“It’s been an extraordinary few days for the nation,” he told a virtual gathering of Democrats on Wednesday.
Left unsaid was how extraordinary those days had been for Biden himself, who oversaw almost all of it from the White House residence, isolating alone with only a bare-bones, in-person staff.
Monday, July 25
When Biden’s top Cabinet officials and national security advisers met with him on his fourth day of Covid isolation, the President’s nose had mostly stopped running. His voice seemed less raspy.
And he had some questions.
But Biden wanted to know what lay behind the windows and door to the small outdoor patio. He asked about the layout of the rooms near where his team was proposing Zawahiri be killed. And were there any other options that would reduce the potential for civilian casualties?
He’d already spent time examining a small-scale model of the house that intelligence officials constructed and carried to the White House Situation Room in a worn wooden box. But he still needed to be convinced the mission wouldn’t come with collateral damage.
The meeting went on for several hours, one official said. Biden “pressed at a granular level,” another senior administration official added.
This time, Biden heard no opposition. And he authorized the strike.
Wednesday, July 27
At 9:12 a.m. ET, Biden swiped his nose with a cotton swab and hoped for the best. It was officially his sixth day isolating with Covid-19. His symptoms had disappeared. He’d started working out again in the White House gym.
Working mostly from the second-floor Treaty Room, an enormous oil painting of President William McKinley looking on, Biden had been going stir crazy during his isolation. The strike he’d authorized two days earlier was still in the works as operatives waited for the right moment.
He’d taken to strolling out to the White House balcony to wave at visitors below.