The excerpts from the book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” written by journalists Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios, set to be released on May 20, offer a damning portrait of Joe Biden’s political and personal decline. It’s the story of a president who, according to the authors, should never have run for re-election and a party that, out of fear or convenience, chose to ignore the reality until it was too late.
The book, already at the center of political debate in the United States, reconstructs the months leading up to the politician’s re-election bid, revealing a dangerous combination of physical and cognitive decline, blind loyalty, and poorly calibrated strategies. A disaster that was waiting to happen in their estimation, which paved the way for Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
As early as 2023, according to sources collected by Tapper and Thompson, the physical and mental condition of the Democratic leader was a major cause for concern among advisers, lawmakers, and donors. Episodes of confusion, motor difficulties, memory lapses, and incoherent speeches were systematically minimized or hidden. Some aides even speculated about the use of a wheelchair, should he be re-elected.
Despite this, a small circle of loyalists, headed by First Lady Jill Biden, strongly defended the image of a man still sharp and competitive. Any opposing voices were marginalized, and every bad piece of news was shielded. The atmosphere within the White House was described as permeated by “forced optimism,” where telling the truth was almost considered an act of insubordination.
The breaking point came on June 27, 2024, during the first televised debate against Trump, when millions of Americans saw for themselves what many had already known for some time: a tired, uncertain president, visibly worn out.
For the Democratic Party, it was a shock. David Plouffe, former strategist for Barack Obama, called the situation a “fucking nightmare.” And in Hollywood, a long-time source of financial and media support for the party, disappointment turned into anger.
Joe Biden’s good friend, George Clooney, who had attended a fundraising event with Biden just days before the debate and found him “gravely diminished, like someone who wasn’t alive,” decided to publish an editorial in the New York Times on July 10 titled “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Candidate.” It was one of the final acts that pushed “the symbol of the old guard” to officially withdraw, an announcement made on July 21.
An internal source at the White House–cited in the book and reported by the weekly magazine The New Yorker–described the president’s behavior as a true “abomination,” claiming that with his conduct, he had stolen the election not only from the Democratic Party but also from the American people, a very serious accusation that encapsulates the real core of Tapper and Thompson’s thesis that Biden’s candidacy was not only a political mistake, but a form of “institutional gaslighting.” A colossal denial of reality that involved both the president’s staff, the Democratic leadership, and part of the liberal media, guilty, according to the authors, of perpetuating the lie for too long.
Tapper and Thompson write that Biden was not driven by selfishness but by the sincere desire to stop Trump. However, his stubbornness, combined with the party’s inability to create a credible alternative in time, produced the opposite result. Kamala Harris, who entered the race in the final stage, did not have the time or space to build a solid campaign. The damage had already been done.
The book is already showing promise of becoming a bestseller.
