The day after Joe Biden tanked in the first round of Democratic presidential debates, his campaign hired a prominent speech coach for the 36-year senator and 8-year vice president.
Records from the Biden’s second-quarter Federal Election Commission filing show his campaign paid Washington, D.C.-based Sheehan Associates $5,300 for “strategic consulting” on June 28. The night before Biden was put on the defensive in the first round of Democratic debates by California Sen. Kamala Harris, who jabbed at his 1970s-era record opposing school busing and recent braggadocio about working with segregationist senators.
Michael Sheehan, the principal of the firm, has coached both Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as numerous vice presidents, first ladies, members of Congress, and governors.
“One of America’s leading communications trainers and strategists, his expertise embraces every format and every forum whether media interview, major speech or high-stakes Q&A,” his website boasts. “His ability to help people communicate at the highest possible level was dubbed by New York Magazine as ‘the Sheehan effect.'”
Sheehan’s website also describes how his services are a “first call for those wishing to attract attention or effectively respond to attack.”
During Biden’s second White House run in 2007, his campaign paid Sheehan Associates $6,500 for “consultant-communications,” just eight days before the South Carolina primary debate that April.
In the second quarter of this year, Biden raised $22 million and spent roughly $11 million, leaving $10 million on hand.
