White House Morale Report­ed­ly In Sham­bles Due To Biden Stiff­ing Staffers On Pho­to Ops

Morale around the White House is low as staffers com­plain they won’t get the tra­di­tion­al part­ing gift of a pho­to with the pres­i­dent, accord­ing to Politi­co Play­book.

It is tra­di­tion in the Biden White House that staffers, once they decide to leave the admin­is­tra­tion, get a pho­to with the pres­i­dent as a thank you for their con­tri­bu­tion, Politi­co Play­book report­ed. But as the pres­i­dent has can­celled the pho­tos for the last few months, staffers are now con­cerned they might not get the cov­et­ed shot despite recent changes, accord­ing to the out­let. (RELATED: With All Eyes On Trump, Biden’s Bub­ble Gath­ered For One Last Swanky, Insu­lat­ed Send­off)

The Office of Man­age­ment and Administration’s employ­ee engage­ment team recent­ly noti­fied staff that they would be get­ting a pho­to on a rolling basis some­time over the next two months, but no addi­tion­al guests will be allowed in the shot, accord­ing to an email obtained by Politi­co Play­book. This caveat upset staffers, the out­let report­ed, because fam­i­ly of staffers have typ­i­cal­ly been invit­ed and would fly down for the occa­sion and a few min­utes with the pres­i­dent.

“Instead of every­one being annoyed by no depar­ture pho­tos, now it’s only half of the peo­ple who are annoyed,” one cur­rent admin­is­tra­tion offi­cial told Politi­co Play­book.

But morale may have tak­en a big­ger hit than some have expect­ed, as senior staffers have found them­selves frus­trat­ed to see junior offi­cials get­ting pho­tos with the pres­i­dent before them, Politi­co Play­book report­ed.

“It makes me annoyed that I’m even this annoyed, but it’s the prin­ci­ple of the mat­ter and a cov­et­ed White House expe­ri­ence to get a depar­ture pho­to,” a text from a for­mer offi­cial obtained by Politi­co Play­book reads. “Like why did I see an intern turned staff assis­tant get a pho­to before me?”

Anoth­er for­mer offi­cial told the out­let that a group of staffers are con­sid­er­ing whether or not to write a peti­tion in an effort to get senior staff pho­tos with the pres­i­dent. An admin­is­tra­tion offi­cial told Politi­co Play­book that for­mer staff are expect­ed to receive invites soon to get a pho­to with the pres­i­dent, a move he hopes will be enough to quell con­cerns about the sit­u­a­tion.

“These are the staffers who stood with Biden since Day 1, many since the low­est ebbs of the cam­paign,” one for­mer offi­cial wrote in a mes­sage to col­leagues, obtained by Politi­co Play­book.

“The staffers who gave every­thing to this Pres­i­dent, who missed anniver­saries, birth­days, their own doc­tors appoint­ments, know­ing democ­ra­cy itself was on the line, deserve at the very least a prop­er good­bye from the man who says he owes them every­thing,” the mes­sage con­tin­ues.

Since drop­ping out of the pres­i­den­tial race in July, Biden has kept a rel­a­tive­ly low pro­file. The pres­i­dent and his allies gath­ered Nov. 22, for a din­ner meant to thank his long­time sup­port­ers. The pres­i­dent thanked atten­dees for sup­port­ing him both polit­i­cal­ly and through­out the tragedy in his life. The First Lady toast­ed to her hus­band, say­ing he was her “hero.”

“And I just want to say, thank you, thank you, thank you,” the pres­i­dent said.

“There’s anoth­er Irish poet who once said that his­to­ry teach­es us not to hope on this side of the grave, but then, once in a life­time, a longed-for tidal wave of jus­tice ris­es up and hope and his­to­ry rhyme,” the 82-year-old appeared to recite from mem­o­ry. “You’re mak­ing hope and his­to­ry rhyme.”