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Original Sin
From two of America’s most respected journalists, an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration
In Greek tragedy, the protagonist’s effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. In 2024, American politics became a Greek tragedy.
Joe Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the White House with the stated goal of saving the nation from a second Trump presidential term. He, his family, and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again, they lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations. At his debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, the consequences of that deception were exposed to the world. It was shocking and upsetting.
Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters, revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. From White House staffers at the highest to lowest levels, to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, from governors to donors and Hollywood players, the truth is finally being told. What you will learn makes President Biden’s decision to run for reelection seem shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional, and reckless—a desperate bet that went bust—and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents. The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will continue for decades.
The irony is biting: In the name of defeating what they called an existential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle ensured it, tossing aside his implicit promise to serve for only one term, denying the existence of health issues the nation had been watching for years, dooming the Democrats to defeat. The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, leading directly to Donald Trump's return to power and all that has happened as a consequence. Rarely does hubris meet nemesis more explosively. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is essential reading.
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Reviews
Well written, researched, and documented. This book gives the reader an inside view into how corruption festers in our current political system, and how a few people can hold an entire country hostage.
By The Pickleball Doctor
Very compelling read. I don’t doubt the legitimacy of the material. If true, we were misled in an epic proportion as voters. However, even as is referenced in these pages, the way it was covered at the time was malpractice. Where was this urgency to communicate the research described here? No, it was held until Biden was not president. The authors write of Trump being held to the same standard as Biden, but that’s not really true. It hasn’t been true since 2016 and it isn’t now. A fascinating, commendable, and at times courageous read. But also one that is too late and too opportunistic to be taken in entirely good faith.
By pd421
I’ll start by saying how grateful I am for the reporting Alex Thompson did on Biden’s decline in 2023 and 2024. In a legacy media filled with cowards and/or partisans, he bravely pursued and published work on the most important presidential story in decades when almost every other political journalist in the country was either out to lunch or willfully dissembling. The majority of the book is a fairly straightforward account of the last two years of Biden’s presidency when, according to the authors, his decline steepened significantly. It’s an easy read and reasonably compelling in its narrative. I understand the authors view this edition as a polished first draft, due to constraints required by publishing speed. That’s good to hear, because there are some significant omissions in this version. The press and VP Harris are let off the hook almost completely. The Harris section of the book, in particular, reads as though someone was afraid of offending her or damaging her reputation. While the other members of the Biden administration who defended the President’s acuity (remember “sharp as a tack”?) are duly taken to task, Harris is given a complete pass, despite the fact that she reportedly had weekly lunches with the President during his term and continued throughout her campaign to defend has competency to serve. The shift in tone in that section is extremely jarring and noticeable. As importantly, there is very little accounting (not none, but close) of the press’s culpability or complicity in what might be charitably described as an underreported story, or less charitably as a cover-up. The total abdication of journalistic responsibility by essentially every White House reporter in the country (excepting Alex and a couple WSJ folks) is nearly as big and important a story as the President’s decline, and there’s very little time devoted to it here. I understand Alex believes the press complicity angle merits a second book. Whether that history is recorded in a new version of this book or another separate volume, I earnestly hope it gets told. Despite Jake’s debatably marred record on this specific subject matter, both of these men are extremely well-sourced and credible, and it’s a shame the first version stopped so far short of recording the whole story. Post Script: Chuck Schumer, who clearly participated quite a bit in the construction of this book, also gets the Harris-style pass on any complicity.
By Senglert
Jake Tapper thoroughly exposes Biden as a self centered old man surrounded by sycophants and enablers.
By Jon Burk
No new information that’s not already out there.
By The.Mac.Genius