When he was in the upper echelons of the U.S. government, plenty of interested parties ponied up millions of dollars for access to Joe Biden.
Now, with no office to sell and just a few marbles still rolling around in his head, Biden apparently still believes his presence is worth big bucks.
The former vice president and installed chief executive is asking $300,000 for speaking engagements.
There are few takers.
"Some of his own former aides say it’s time for the 82-year-old to leave the spotlight for good after reminiscing about 'colored kids' Tuesday in his first public address since leaving office," the New York Post reported on Thursday.
Since early February, Biden has been represented by the Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
“CAA is having trouble booking gigs, which isn’t surprising,” a tipster told The Post.
Along with the $300,000 speaking fee, if travel is required a private jet and expenses for five staffers is also expected for a Biden appearance.
Biden’s use of “colored kids” while speaking at a disability conference in Chicago earlier this week has some former aides hoping he will spend more time at his Rehoboth Beach house in Delaware, the Post's report said.
“This was hard to watch,” said one former White House official. “It felt like seeing someone you care about start to regress. We just wanted him to enjoy retirement like other presidents — not go out like this.”
The Post cited sources as saying Biden is struggling to find top-dollar audiences because he has the wrong representation.
"The quality of potential remarks aside, some former aides say that CAA — which declined to comment for this story, and which also reps former Vice President Kamala Harris — may be ill-positioned to book lucrative business conference gigs," the report said.
One source close to Biden’s post-presidential office said that signing with CAA was a “bad decision.”
The Harry Walker Agency, which works with both Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as Barack Obama, “has relationships with all these large annual conferences and clients looking for high-profile speakers,” the source said.
“CAA is a Hollywood shop. They’re not set up to market speakers to, like, the national duty-free shopping conference. The bread and butter of paid speaking gigs is random large annual industry conferences.”
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