It’s always been sort of a running joke among the Right that President Joe Biden is too old and too feeble-minded to actually be running the show – and usually those jokes would receive angry pushback from the left. But a new report from NBC News indicates that maybe it wasn’t a joke after all.

What’s worse, the truth is a bit more frightening than the joke let on.

In its detailed report, NBC News paints a picture of a President who has little to no control over the office and a staff dead set on making sure its agenda is the President’s focus rather than the other way around.

As my colleague Bonchie mentioned earlier this morning, part of the news report seems fixated on absolving Biden of the mistakes of his administration. However, it could be that something much more nefarious is afoot. It’s not that Biden isn’t at fault, but that Biden isn’t in control of his own policies, having shopped most of the work out to staffers from among the far left.

Beyond policy, Biden is unhappy about a pattern that has developed inside the West Wing. He makes a clear and succinct statement — only to have aides rush to explain that he actually meant something else. The so-called clean-up campaign, he has told advisers, undermines him and smothers the authenticity that fueled his rise. Worse, it feeds a Republican talking point that he’s not fully in command.

The issue came to a head when Biden ad-libbed during a speech in Poland that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” Within minutes, Biden’s aides tried to walk back his comments, saying he hadn’t called for Putin’s removal and that U.S. policy was unchanged. Biden was furious that his remarks were being seen as unreliable, arguing that he speaks genuinely and reminding his staff that he’s the one who is president.

Asked about the staff’s practice of clarifying Biden’s remarks, the official said: “We don’t say anything that the president doesn’t want us to say.”

Some of the anecdotes in the story are as humorous as they are frightening. For example, Joe Biden was both surprised by the plummeting polling and also completely aware it was happening.

I've read this paragraph five times now and I still cannot parse out what exactly it is trying to say, unless what it's trying to say is "nobody here can get their story straight": pic.twitter.com/OTokSxllrc

— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) May 31, 2022

At a meeting with advisers about a month ago, Biden was surprised to see polling that indicated he had dropped among suburban women, according to two people familiar with the meeting. An adviser said Biden gets weekly polling briefings that delve into “key demographics” and that, because he is kept apprised regularly, he didn’t have that reaction. (At a news conference in September, Biden said flatly, “I don’t look at the polls — not a joke.”)

The White House official denied that Biden is feeling frustrated. “What he’s pushing for is to make a sharper case for all that we have accomplished thus far,” this person said.

Glad that got cleared up.

But who exactly is the president here? Biden’s kept on a tight leash. He doesn’t speak to the press much, he is very rarely allowed to speak freely, and when he does his White House is quick to correct him. The story doesn’t paint a good picture for a man whose term has been fraught with missteps at just about every turn.

Is Ron Klain on his way out the door? It’s speculated in the article, but Klain has been a weak Chief of Staff at best. If his briefings didn’t keep him up to speed on various crises like the baby formula shortage, and if the White House has been as chaotic as this article implies, Klain should have been out months ago.

If Biden is not in control of his administration, and if his Chief of Staff is incapable of keeping things together, then who is actually in charge?

As it turns out, POLITICO may have given us that answer back in March.

Warren’s expanding network in the upper echelons of the administration includes protégés who helped execute her aggressive oversight of big banks and other corporations as well as friends who share her views of the risks looming on Wall Street. But it goes beyond finance, covering pivotal posts at the Department of Education and even the National Security Council.

The Warren recruits mark a victory for the progressive movement, which has supported her yearslong “personnel is policy” campaign to chip away at the dominance of corporate insiders in setting policy for Democrats. Those who took on the fight with Warren say they’re pleasantly surprised it has produced so many results under Biden, reflecting a new emphasis on inequality and challenging corporate power. Industry lobbyists, in turn, warn that banks, private equity firms and consumer lenders should pay close attention.

The Biden administration has basically contracted its staffing out to Elizabeth Warren (and, very likely, other far-left politicians). As a result, a lot of policies Elizabeth Warren and the gang love are actually getting pushed by this administration.

What happened is that Biden had to make concessions to the left when he came into office to try and prevent a civil war from breaking out within his own party. So, his team has been allowing Warren staffers to come over and take pivotal roles in the administration. It’s probably not just Warren, either, but that’s the one group of far-left acolytes we know through reports have come aboard.

This means that someone like Elizabeth Warren actually has greater sway in this administration than the administration’s own leader, who is a weak and feeble-minded leader, incapable of commanding the respect of his staff – because that staff appears to be more loyal to someone else (or, at least, that someone else’s ideology).

So, while she didn’t win the nomination in 2020, Elizabeth Warren has still gotten herself into a position of power within the White House, and it’s one she can’t be fired for.

Meanwhile, Biden is stuck looking at polling during his briefings and trying to figure out where it’s all going wrong, failing to realize he’s the one who invited this disaster into his own home.