Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

Amazon, from FREE to $31.62, depending on format Why did I read this? It’s everywhere right now! So I had to read it, and honestly, I was spellbound the whole time, I burned through it in about four hours. Simply put, it’s the story of all of the people who covered up Biden’s cognitive decline that began a couple years into his term, but the main focus is on those who continued to cover it up and support his effort to run for president in 2024. Absolutely fascinating: Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson dutifully convey all the no-holds-barred backdoor political conversations that we’ll never hear ourselves, because they’re too honest and profane and unpolished. Don’t be fooled — this is not a book that’s politically biased in any way — it’s simply the story of the folks who enabled Biden’s ill-fated run that ended prematurely and gave rise to a hurried and failed campaign by Kamala Harris. Yes, the villains are all Democrats, but — well, of course they are, because the book is set in a Democrats-only universe. You didn’t think Biden had any MAGA advisors pulling the strings, did you? There definitely is a recurring theme and conclusion that those who enabled Biden to run when he clearly was mentally unfit to do so are the ones who are truly responsible for a second Trump term. But blame is doled out among many, including plenty for Biden himself, who we learn clung to the nomination in spite of morbid polls and intimate knowledge of his own decline. What’s uncertain at the end, though, is how much of that to assign to selfishness and how much to assign to his declining cognitive ability. Among the heel turns in the book are John Fetterman (who attacked the Biden-must-go faction of the Senate as “fucking the president,” everyone in his “palace guard,” meaning his interior team who spent years hiding his decline, but none so much as the first lady. The book shows Jill Biden as either the most deluded or the most cruel of all in Biden’s circle, continuing to rah-rah her husband throughout the most painfully obviously moments of public dementia, fueling the spectacular mockery and failure that came in the following months. Wherever you lie on the political spectrum, it’s fascinating stuff and I highly recommend it.