A devastating new exposé by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson is sending political shockwaves across Washington, exposing what they allege was a coordinated effort by the Biden inner circle to conceal his severe mental and physical decline during the 2024 election cycle.
CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter: “Original Sin” has zoomed to #1 on Amazon’s new releases list — a real rarity for a book about politics… The book is as much about deception as it is about deteriorating health.”https://t.co/ii0JDbiqCw
https://t.co/QB4eyVuvm7— OriginalSinBook (@OriginalSinBook) May 14, 2025
The book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, offers detailed, and at times unsettling, accounts of a presidency that was unraveling behind the scenes—all while being publicly framed as stable, focused, and effective.
SUPERCUT!
Before profiting off the media conspiracy to hide Biden’s decline, @jaketapper helped run it pic.twitter.com/j5m7h4JVA3
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 27, 2025
The revelations contained in Original Sin don’t just raise questions about President Joe Biden’s fitness for office. They strike at the heart of democratic transparency, exposing a deliberate strategy to protect a weakened incumbent at the cost of public trust, electoral preparedness, and national credibility.
Buddy, 2022 was when Biden had to be led away by a staffer in an Easter Bunny costume and when he searched the room for a dead congresswoman who he had given condolences to a month earlier. https://t.co/rnZcB4S8Dl
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) May 14, 2025
Biden’s now-infamous June debate against Donald Trump—where he appeared disoriented and slow—wasn’t a fluke. It was, according to the book, the inevitable outcome of a decline that had long been visible to those around him.
Key Bombshells from the Book
1. Cognitive Lapses and Public Incidents
Tapper and Thompson document troubling episodes, including one in which Biden failed to recognize long-time friend and Hollywood A-lister George Clooney during a marquee fundraiser. According to the book, Clooney was visibly shaken by the encounter.
Later that evening, former President Obama reportedly had to physically guide Biden offstage when he froze at the edge of the platform, staring blankly at the audience. Biden’s team dismissed such moments as “cheap fakes” or overblown, but the authors insist the incident was genuine and symbolic of the private chaos surrounding the president’s public appearances.
2. Physical Decline Concealed
Perhaps most alarming is the revelation that Biden’s aides debated putting him in a wheelchair during the campaign—but only after the election. The book recounts internal discussions acknowledging Biden’s deteriorating stamina and mobility, but advisors feared the optics of a wheelchair would be politically ruinous. This led to a pattern of deflection and disinformation, including false claims that Biden’s stilted walk was due to a minor foot injury—despite medical records indicating the injury had fully healed.
3. Strategists and Insiders Felt Betrayed
Democratic strategist David Plouffe, tapped to help Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out in July 2024, didn’t hold back. According to the book, he said the campaign was a “f—ing nightmare,” and accused Biden of having “totally f—– us” by running again despite knowing he was unfit. The campaign’s scramble to reinvent itself with less than four months until Election Day was framed by Plouffe as a “rescue mission.”
4. Political Fallout and Party Distrust
While Biden’s defenders insist that no critical presidential decisions were compromised, the damage done to public trust is profound. The book details how Democratic leaders and White House staff—fully aware of Biden’s limitations—chose to shield, spin, and deflect rather than confront the truth. Many now argue this deception left the party vulnerable, handed Donald Trump an opening, and left Harris with an impossible task.
The emerging portrait is not just one of a faltering president, but of a political class complicit in a cover-up. Democratic leadership, media allies, and campaign operatives are now under scrutiny for what increasingly looks like a systemic decision to protect the institution over informing the people. And while President Biden’s defenders continue to cite his policy achievements, the revelations in Original Sin suggest that those wins may have come at a steep cost: the public’s right to know the truth about the condition of their elected leader.
