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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.
“Running for re-election was a disastrous decision and it destroyed a honourable and consequential legacy,” said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “Joe Biden is a source of deep disappointment and betrayal with the Democratic party. The fact that he’s still out publicly promoting himself and his presidency is further confirmation of the disconnect between Joe Biden and reality.”
Based on interviews with more than 200 people including White House insiders, members of Congress and donors, Original Sin presents a scathing account of an elderly, egotistical president cocooned from reality seeking re-election in 2024 despite significant concerns about his declining health and cognitive abilities.
Examples included losing his train of thought, struggling to remember names, incoherent speeches and difficulty with physical tasks, Tapper and Thompson write. Aides discussed the possibility of Biden needing a wheelchair if he won re-election due to the severity of his physical slowdown and fears of falls. “What the public saw of his functioning was concerning. What was going on in private was worse.”
Biden’s reckless decision to run, enabled by his inner circle, is described as an “abomination” and an act of “extended public deception” that ultimately led to the Democratic defeat and made inevitable the fate that Biden feared the most: Donald Trump’s return to power.
The authors also allege a deliberate effort by Biden’s close staff and allies to conceal the extent of his deterioration, though they do not dwell on the question of whether many in the media were complicit. One anonymous aide is quoted as saying: “We attempted to shield him from his own staff so many people didn’t realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023.”
In an appearance on CNN, where he is lead DC anchor and chief Washington correspondent, Tapper said: “The White House was lying not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own cabinet. They were lying to White House staffers. They were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors, about how bad things had gotten.”
Biden’s doddering debate performance against Trump on 27 June 2024 was the moment the grand deception was exposed. The president clung on for more than three weeks before finally stepping aside and endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris. David Plouffe, an adviser for Harris, told the authors that Biden’s belated withdrawal “totally fucked us”.
Unusually for a political book, Original Sin soared to number one on Amazon’s new releases list and put the media spotlight back on Biden. Congressman Ro Khanna has admitted Biden should not have run while the Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, has suggested he should have dropped out sooner. Some have questioned why Democrats are still furiously debating what happened even as his successor threatens democracy itself.
But a line from the book is telling about a perceived betrayal of public trust and a need to learn lessons for the future: “Democrats deceived the country about Biden’s abilities and, Clooney said, ‘that’s how Trump won’.”
There is still disagreement over when, or even whether, Biden should have abandoned his bid for re-election. Allies continue to defend him, pointing out that no evidence has come to light that his decision making was impaired or he jeopardised national security, and highlighting his robust performances in last year’s State of the Union address and Nato summit in Washington.
Ron Klain, a former White House chief of staff, told the Guardian via text messages: “I do not think he should have dropped out at all. We are all in decline. But the president was mentally sharp and capable of serving. I think his press conference after the Nato meeting in July proved that.”
Others contend that the president who had called himself a “bridge” to the next generation should have quit far sooner.
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.”
Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction.org, a progressive group that launched a “Don’t Run Joe” campaign in November 2022, said: “The book verifies everybody’s concern who was speaking out privately. I talked to congressmen in early 2023 who said, God, this guy’s going to drag us down. But the fear element was there.
“It documents convincingly that the Democratic party establishment took a dive when they should have put up a fight and – this is very sad to say – almost every Democrat in Congress was culpable. It was not rocket science or political science to know that Biden should not run again. It was hidden in plain sight.”
Yet Biden, who reportedly remains convinced he could have beaten Trump, is not going away any time soon. He signed with Creative Artists Agency for representation and, aware that Original Sin and a slate of other damaging books were on the way, he hired the communications strategist Chris Meagher to defend his reputation.
Last week he gave high-profile interviews to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and the ABC talkshow The View. He told the latter he was writing a book and said: “I’m trying to figure out what’s the most significant and consequential role I can play, consistent with what I’ve done in the past.”
Frank Luntz, a political and communications consultant and pollster, said: “He has every right to speak up as a president, as a vice-president, as a senator for roughly 30 years, as a leading force in American politics. He has every right to be heard.
“If that’s what he chooses to do, that is absolutely his right as an American political leader for half a century. He was elected at the age of 29. If he has something to say, he should say it and he should be welcomed and, if it hurts the Democrats, it’s their own fault.”
Like his fellow one-term president Jimmy Carter, Biden may have to wait a long time before his reputation recovers. He left office with just a 36% approval rating, according to a CNN poll, and faces continued opprobrium not only over his decision to run again but his handling of issues such as inflation and the war in Gaza. Democratic candidates are unlikely to be clamouring for his endorsement in next year’s midterm elections.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, suggested: “He should step back, at least for a while, certainly through the midterm elections, and then let the nominee in 2028 determine whether he’s brought back in.
“If the nominee thinks he can help he’ll ask him and if he doesn’t he won’t. We’ll know what the answer is in terms of whether Biden gets an evening slot at the Democratic convention or an early morning slot when we’re all suffering from hangovers.”
Solomon of RootsAction.org added: “The best thing he can do is to get off the stage. As awful as his impacts have been on facilitating Trump’s return, he still is unrestrained and he’s compounding the felony.
“I don’t think it’s a completely unfair comparison to King Lear. The storm is coming and he’s in the winter of his life and he’s trying to to vindicate himself but it’s too late. It’s impossible. He’s a walking risk factor for any Democrat who wants to win election next year.”
