Former President Joe Biden's team panicked after a reporter reached out to Biden on his personal cell for an interview and hurriedly changed the president's number, according to a new book released Tuesday.
In "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," New York Times reporter Tyler Pager described how he reached out directly to Biden on his cell phone in March to see if he would be willing to be interviewed for the book, which he co-authored alongside reporters Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf.
Biden reportedly picked up and said he would be available to speak with Pager the next day. He answered a few questions the following morning before he had to cut the conversation short to catch a train.
Biden told Pager he had a "very negative" view of President Donald Trump's second term and didn't "see anything he's done that's been productive." He also said he didn't regret dropping out of the 2024 race.
BIDEN AIDES PUSHED FOR EARLY DEBATE TO SHOW OFF BIDEN'S 'STRENGTH,' EXPOSE TRUMP'S 'WEAKNESS,' BOOK SAYS
"No, not now. I don't spend a lot of time on regrets," he told Pager before hanging up to get on the train.
After the first call, Pager was flooded with calls and text messages from Biden aides, who were "freaking out" that he had obtained the president's personal number, he told podcast host Kara Swisher on Monday.
After the interview, the reporter soon discovered his own number had been blocked by Biden's team. Two days later, Biden's number had been disconnected.
"This is why they lost," Swisher said in response to Pager's story.
A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
The book's revelations mirror those in others released this year about the 2024 election and the Biden presidency, which detail his alleged mental deterioration in office and how his inner circle fiercely protected him from the media.
"2024" follows Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," released in May; "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House," by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes; and "Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History" by Chris Whipple, both released in April.
Allegations that the president's team "covered up" Biden's mental decline from the public while he was in office have spurred a House Oversight Committee probe into the matter, backed by the Trump administration. Nine former senior White House officials are expected to testify in the coming weeks.
A representative for Biden declined to comment.
A former Biden speechwriter balked at Pager in a post on X, writing, "Is the implication here supposed to be that it's normal and important for any journalist to have the personal cell phone number of the president - and if you can't call POTUS directly whenever you'd like, it's a sign of insularity? Because that strikes me as... insane."
