(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Explosive new revelations on the decline of former President Joe Biden came to light on Tuesday ahead of the publication of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson. Several outlets published comprehensive previews of the highly anticipated new book, and The New Yorker ran a lengthy excerpt. The splashy new information has generated even more buzz for the book ahead of next Tuesday’s release.
Here are five of the most shocking tidbits we learned on Tuesday:
1. Biden’s top aides tried to hide him from his own staff
A person identified by Tapper and Thompson as a senior aide who quit the White House told the authors, “We attempted to shield him from his own staff so many people didn’t realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023.” Among the techniques used by top aides were: limiting urgent business to hours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., instructing writers to keep
“I love Joe Biden,” the unnamed aide told Tapper and Thompson. “When it comes to decency, there are few in politics like him. Still, it was a disservice to the country and to the party for his family and advisers to allow him to run again.”
2. Top Kamala Harris campaign aide goes scorched earth
While many of the roughly 200 people who spoke to Tapper and Thompson did not permit the authors to use their names, top Kamala Harris campaign advisor David Plouffe had no qualms whatsoever about going on the record — and blasting former President Biden.
“We got so screwed by Biden, as a party,” Plouffe said.
Plouffe added that the truncated campaign was a “fucking nightmare” and he put the blame squarely on one man.
“It’s all Biden,” Plouffe said. “He totally fucked us.”
3. Obama had to rescue Biden numerous times during star-studded fundraiser
The video of former President Barack Obama guiding Biden offstage at a June 15, 2024, fundraiser in Los Angeles after Biden seemingly froze for several seconds got a lot of attention at the time. But according to Tapper and Thompson, it was not the only time that night Obama needed to step in to rescue the man who served as his vice president:
Obama didn’t know what to make of how his former running mate was acting. At
one point, in a small group of a few dozen top donors, Biden began speaking—barely audibly—and trailed off incoherently. Obama had to jump in and preside. At other moments, during photos, Obama would hop in and finish sentences for him.
Initially, Obama chalked up Biden’s struggles that night to a taxing schedule. But in time, the authors wrote, “Obama would come to realize that scheduling was not the fundamental problem.”
4. Biden didn’t recognize George Clooney
Biden’s on-stage freezing and off-stage rambling were not the only signs of his decline at that A-list June 2024 L.A. fundraiser. Incredibly, Biden appeared not to recognize George Clooney when he met up with him that night.
Here’s how Tapper and Thompson described the surreal encounter:
“You know George,” the assisting aide told the President, gently reminding him who was in front of him. “Yeah, yeah,” the President said to one of the most recognizable men in the world, the host of this lucrative fund-raiser. “Thank you for being here.”“Hi, Mr. President,” Clooney said.“How are ya?” the President replied.“How was your trip?” Clooney asked.“It was fine,” the President said.It seemed clear that the President had not recognized Clooney.“It was not O.K.,” recalled the Hollywood V.I.P. who had witnessed this moment. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know—especially a famous person who’s doing a
fucking fund-raiser for you—it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”“George Clooney,” the aide clarified for the President.“Oh, yeah!” Biden said. “Hi, George!”Clooney was shaken to his core. The President hadn’t recognized him, a man he had known for years.
5. Biden aides discussed putting him in a wheelchair
Having already taken measures to accommodate his physical limitations — such as keeping speeches short so he wouldn’t have to stay on his feet, and using the short staircase to Air Force One — close Biden aides thought about going even further.
“Biden’s physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair,” Tapper and Thompson wrote, “but they couldn’t do so until after the election.”
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician at the time, warned that a Biden fall could possibly make the wheelchair a necessity.
And while staffers chalked up Biden’s gait to a 2020 foot fracture, according to O’Connor, Biden was suffering from “significant spinal arthritis.”