Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, “Original Sin–President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”–copyright Penguin Press 2025 314 pgs

When the nation was gearing up, one way or another, for the most recent Presidential Election, it was common though not extremely so, to hear comments regarding Joe Biden’s capability of being President for another term. This did not reach a crescent until things began actually to happen in the spring of 2024, but it was to some extent lurking in the background before that.

I remember hearing as far back as the 2020 campaign at least one speculation on it. I don’t remember who was being quoted, but he said something like, “We all slow down as we get older and maybe Joe’s lost a step or two.” That may not be a literal quote but it’s close and that was the essence of it. He went on to say that despite this Joe was up to being President–or words to that effect.

Whoever that man was, he was quite possibly telling the truth. And indeed, I could make a fairly solid case that Biden was capable of being President then and was a good President for 2 or 3 years. After all, he saw us through and to some extent out of covid, prevented covid from causing a serious long term recession, and built an alliance of (mostly European) countries to defend Ukraine.

I did several blogs in which I praised Joe one way or another and I stand by them. But I think that clearly something went wrong around early 2023. Or more accurately, I’d say that something had been going wrong for a long time and it began to manifest itself in ways many of us saw(but frequently did not admit, even to ourselves)about then.

That is more or less–though not exactly–the thesis of this book. Jake and Alex tell us that Joe Biden had been in decline for a long time, A lot of people close to him–family and close, loyal old time employees, for example–also noticed but refused to accept it. The result of this, they say, was an increasingly confused Presidency which was hobbled by a declining President, and a fractured Democratic party in which leading politicians debated and struggled with questions of honesty, national security, and honor. In the end it all went wrong and the results are there to see now. As I type these words the Big Beautiful Bill has had its final vote of passage in the House and been signed into law. What eventual effects result is impossible to predict. Much of it looks bad, particularly for the less fortunate.

My own reaction to this book is , first of all, that it is well researched and well-written, and that if you are interested in American politics you need to read it. Actually, if you’re just a citizen, current or would-be, you need to read it. I think it is a fair book and it certainly gives you the inside views, although not always who had these views, since obviously a lot of the interviewees refused to talk without a guarantee of anonymity.

As a Biden supporter I feel it is sometimes a little bit lacking in understanding of the president and a little heavy on the condemnation side. But only a little, for there is much here to be disturbed about and of course mine is a reaction that both emotional and logic driven. They do note Biden’s past in Ch 2, “Get Up.” They review his life and its disasters, the pain, loss, disappointments–the times dreams have been dashed and the times he has struggled and not succeeded in getting his message out. They cover this and note his father’s advice, which was “It’s not how many times you get knocked down…It’s how quickly you get back up.”

And Joe took this advice. And through illness, sorrows and failures he got up and went on. And on Jan 20, 2021, just 14 days after Jan 6, he took the oath of office. But within less than a year his Presidency was in trouble and all around him knew it. At some level likely he knew it too.

Other than the family, led by the First Lady, those closest to him came to be known as “The Politburo.” This consisted of three men, Mike Donovan, Steve Ricchetti, and Bruce Reed who had worked with Biden in one capacity or another for a long time. Not well know to the public, they were known to the media and to all familiar with the Presidency.

There were also Bob Bauer and Anita Dunn, a married couple who knew him from the Obama Administration days and unlike most of their Obama team comrades joined Joe in 2015 and backed him rather than Hillary the following year.

These were the insiders though there were many others who worked for him in his Administration and then watched with some alarm as he geared up for running for re-election, an effort that drew mixed reactions from the people closest to him but seems to have alarmed or at least sobered many of them.

This all was debated and considered and gone over by the President’s advisors and family and sometimes the President himself, a process clearly delineated by the authors. One of the biggest issues came to be, should he or should he not take on Donald Trump in a televised debate? The decision, and a very difficult one for many, was that he should. The majority of influential people around him reached this conclusion with various degrees of enthusiasm and/or nervousness, but the overall idea was that there simply wasn’t much of a choice. Many around Biden thought Harris an inadequate replacement for him and while there appears to have been little hostility between the Harris people and the Biden people, there also wasn’t much warmth.

By the time this decision came about, it was clear to many of his intimates and assistants that the President was no longer the leader he had been when he was Vice-President or indeed, even when he was first President. One aide said they were “grading him on a curve every day” and that things which would have been considered disastrous the year before were now passed over with comments such as “Okay, we got through that.” Except that they didn’t–not with many of the media, not with a larger and larger number of the public and not with each other. The house was about to fall down and no one knew what to do.

That was particularly true after the debate(We all know what happened in the debate). The immediate reaction to consider is that of the Dem professional politicians, those around Biden and those running for re-election(All the House and about 1/3 of the Senate). They were appalled at what they were going to have to defend, on the stump and elsewhere ,and declare they were satisfied with to a more and more skeptical public. The quotations the authors give indicate frequent remarks such as “This is a fucking disaster” and “We are fucked.” In fact, it all sounds as if they had been listening to Donald Trump speeches and incorporated one of his favorite words.

Among the family and the important supporters the debate went on. Should he drop out or keep going? How could he sell himself after the disaster of a debate performance against Trump? One supporter stated that there was about a 3-year difference in the ages of the two Presidential candidates but with that debate it appeared more like 30 years. And I have to conclude, having watched the debate, I had something of the same thought.

Now his support within the party was crumbling. People who denied the issues of his age, or who had tried to keep a discrete silence before, were beginning to go public, usually saying he shouldn’t run or at least that dropping out should be an option. The ever-Democratic loyal NYT took its stand. The President should step down .”The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public.”

But the President was determined not to give in and the First Lady stood loyally if not very sensibly behind her husband. Sen Debbie Stabenow of MI told Jill that she had known Joe for more than twenty years, worked as his colleague and admired him, but now she was worried. The First Lady apparently listened to her words but was not moved to agree.

Over the next few weeks it got worse. The President looked for support and found it eroding within his party. The DSCC had met and decided he had to go. Nancy Pelosi had written a warm and friendly letter expressing her admiration of him, but also stating this was the time to leave. Hold a good new conference, then announce he was dropping out of the race and go out strong, rather than waiting for ignominious defeat. Her letter went unanswered. Finally it fell to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to talk to him and finish the job.

In what must have been a painful conversation for both, the Senator alternately called him “Joe” and “Mr. President.” Then he asked if the President had looked at the polls recently. Biden admitted he had not and Schumer told his old friend and leader that if he had a fifty percent chance of winning it would be a risk worth taking. But a reasonable interpretation of the polls indicated his real chance of a victory was about 5%. And Schumer told him to drop out now, not to try again, that he would leave an honorable and admirable legacy that way. The other choice would be a legacy of being remembered mainly for making Trump a 2 term President.

Biden wanted to know if Kamala had a chance and Schumer said, honestly, I would think, that he didn’t know if she could win, but he did know Biden would lose. The President said he would think and have an answer soon. In his car, being driven back to Brooklyn, Sen Schumer, Minority Leader of the US Senate, phoned his staff to explain– and he began to cry.

The following Sunday the President phoned the Vice-President to tell her his decision to drop out. She loyally urged him to think about it. “Don’t let them push you out, Joe.” But Biden had made up his mind and asked her if she would run. “Are you up for it, kid?” “Yes I’d be honored to,” the VP replied. One career was ending and another taking a big step, though where that step would lead was not clear. It all would become at least temporarily clear. The answer arrived election night.

(The above story, the decision to get Biden to drop out and Kamala to replace him is told on approximately pgs 274-288 and is one of the most dramatic and poignant parts of the book)

The authors add a quick summation, ch 18, “Out the Door,” and ch 19,”Conclusions.” The former is mostly a description of things that close followers of Presidential politics mostly already knew. Overall, Biden did not leave office, or discharge his duties from election to Inauguration with a lot of distinction. A trip to Brazil looked bad when he spoke strictly from a script, took no questions, and went “shuffling down a path that made it look as if he were disappearing into the jungle.” Many fellow Democrats wondered how his people had thought he could manage another term. Others began finger pointing, often as the First lady who must have had access to all of the information regarding his day-to-day functioning but insisted on supporting a second term.

Then there were the pardons which went beyond what he had indicated he would do. He included unexpected family members and this infuriated some of his supporters.

The last chapter, “Conclusions” does not offer very many but is still important to read. The authors review the original Constitution and the issue of Presidential succession. The give a short but enlightening explanation of the 25th Amendment which provides for actions Congress and the Cabinet are able to take if the President is incapacitated

They point out that legally there is no requirement that the Presidential doctors disclose everything they know or that they administer cognitive tests to see how his mind is working. They do suggest Congress should pass an act requiring that President’s physician certify to Congress that he is physically and cognitively able to function. It could also be put into law that full reports on the President’s health be offered to the public. Given all the country has had to think about recently I consider these both worthy suggestions.

Although the authors do make an effort, already noted regarding the “Get Up” chapter, about Biden’s many strong points, I found the ending of it a bit of a “downer,” perhaps not a necessary thing.

This was a man who gave of himself for years and years and wound up being humiliated on his way out of office. It seems to me a bit more compassion could have been used.

But I stand by Tapper’s and Thompson’s right to say what they think and to report what they did and learned. I just wish they had been a bit more generous with the end of their book. I have no serious issue with it before that final–and brief–chapter. You can learn a lot about our politics and how they work from this book and I think all citizens should read it. Particularly if you believe in the importance of politics and political awareness and participation I think you should.

I just wish–perhaps sentimentally, one old Democrat re: another–that someone had said the 21st century equivalent of “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Apparently no one did and that is not Tapper’s and Thompson’s fault. Perhaps eventually, someone will say it. I think it is largely true of the 46th President of the US.

My own guess is there will be a slew of books on this Presidency, some fairly soon. If you’re interested you should have plenty to consider. I hope that you will.

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