Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

 

Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

by Jake Tapper (Author), Alex Thompson (Author)

Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again is a 2025 non-fiction book by American journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. It was published by Penguin Random House on May 20, 2025. It details the claims that there was a cover-up regarding Joe Biden's health during his term as the president of the United States and his reelection campaign, leading up to the 2024 presidential election.

 

Background

The 2024 Joe Biden–Donald Trump presidential debate, which was moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN, was held on June 27, 2024.[4] Biden had an extremely poor performance, and, following the debate, there were concerns about his age and health, and whether he would be capable of serving a second term. This eventually led to Biden dropping out of the election and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party's presidential nominee on July 21, 2024.

 

Harris lost the election to Trump, losing the popular vote 48.3-49.8% and the Electoral College 226-312. Harris had just 107 days (3.5 months) as the nominee and did not go through a primary election. In the aftermath of Harris' loss, many commentators speculated as to whether Harris or another nominee may have won had Biden not run for a second term. David Plouffe, who helped run Harris' campaign, said that Biden's poor debate performance and dropping out more than three weeks later doomed Harris to defeat.

 

Contents

The book is based on around 200 interviews, the majority of which were conducted with Democratic insiders following the 2024 United States presidential election. It heavily explores Joe Biden's physical deterioration, leading up to the presidential election, particularly the Joe Biden–Donald Trump presidential debate. Following the announcement of the book, Axios wrote that "Thompson and Tapper draw a direct line from Biden's decision to run again — his 'original sin' that led to a campaign of 'gaslighting and denial' — and the election of President Trump."

 

The book stated that during Joe Biden's reelection presidential campaign, there were discussions about having Biden use a wheelchair in the event that he won a second term. Physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor said that "a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery", if Biden had a "bad fall" in 2023 or 2024. A spokesperson stated that while medical exams "made clear" that Biden had a "stiffened gait caused, in part, by wear and tear to his spine", no necessary treatment was given.

 

Despite Biden's insistence that he would have defeated Trump if he had stayed in the race, the book stated that there were no polls supporting this claim, adding that "there was no credible data ... to support the notion that he would have won.”  According to Semafor, the book explained that digital video "was a constant struggle" and Biden's campaign was "getting creative with editing" such as using slow motion videos to hide how slowly Biden was walking.

 

Another issue was that Joe Biden began to forget names halfway through his term, dating back to December 2022, as well as "staring blankly" at people that he had known for years, including actor George Clooney, and becoming "more disoriented and incoherent" when fatigued.The book explained that Biden's inner circle wanted to keep him happy and "shield him from bad news", which was occasionally about the president himself and his health. Several cabinet members stated that they would go months without seeing Biden, despite having "regular access" to him beforehand.

 

Tapper and Thompson wrote an article containing excerpts of the book in the The New Yorker a week before the book was released. Tapper also stated on CNN that the book showed that "the White House was lying, not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own Cabinet. They were lying to White House staffers. They were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors, about how bad things had gotten."

 

Reception

The book was favorably reviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, Tyler Austin Harper of The Atlantic compared Biden's decline to that of the title character in Shakespeare's play King Lear. David Smith of The Guardian stated that the book "presents a scathing account of a president cocooned from reality". Norman Solomon of The Nation praised the book, while also cautioning that sections of the book should be treated with some degree of skepticism due to their reliance on anonymous sources and occasional hearsay.

 

A spokesperson from Biden's team criticized the book as an "effort to make a profit" and that "we continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job". Biden's granddaughter Naomi Biden stated that the book "amounts to a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self promoting journalists out to make a quick buck".