The book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson presents a scathing account of a president cocooned from reality – and fuels questions about his role in the party

George Clooney “felt a knot form in his stomach” as a frail and diminished Joe Biden approached him, apparently failing to recognise one of the most famous actors in the world. “George Clooney,” an aide eventually clarified for the US president. “Oh, yeah!” Biden said. “Hi, George!”

The excruciating encounter at a glitzy Los Angeles fundraiser last June is one of several damning anecdotes contained in Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, an upcoming book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.

Previews of the book gripped Washington this week, exposing the shocking truth of the last year of Biden’s presidency as his health declined and reopening old wounds in the Democratic party and White House press corps. The revelations also fuelled questions over what political role, if any, 82-year-old Biden has to play in the future as he strives to redeem his legacy

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    2·
    6 days ago

    Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said: “Even in 2021 and 2022 Biden was likely not fit to run for re-election. He could not get sentences out. He could not barnstorm the country. He could not make a case like Barack Obama could. He couldn’t skewer false Republican talking points like other Democratic politicians could. He shouldn’t have run again.” He added_: “The incorrect takeaway from this book is that Biden should have gotten out a few weeks earlier so that Kamala Harris would win. The better take is that he should have gotten out earlier so that the Democrats could have a primary and select a better candidate.”_