The investigative book revealed the secrets of Biden's entourage. Answers to the main questions

In the book "Original Sin: the degradation of President Biden, its concealment and his disastrous decision to run again," CNN journalists Jake Tapper and Axios Alex Thompson expose the US political establishment, which deliberately concealed the obvious signs of deterioration in the health of the previous head of the White House. Ultimately, this played into Donald Trump's hands, leading him to victory in the 2024 elections. What exactly the authors of the book found out about Biden's entourage is in the Izvestia article.

Who wrote the book?

• A book exposing Biden was written by two American journalists, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. It was published by the American publisher Penguin Press. Tapper works as a CNN anchor. It was he and his colleague Dana Bash who moderated the Trump-Biden debate in June 2024, at which the world community saw the weakness of the head of state for the first time. Just a few weeks after them, Biden withdrew his candidacy from the presidential election. Thompson works for Axios, where he covers national politics.

• During the writing of the book, the journalists, according to them, talked with about 200 high-ranking American politicians and lobbyists. However, some of them agreed to tell their version of events only after the November 2024 elections, fearing to influence them. Since the topic is quite sensitive, most of the interlocutors are unlikely to ever admit that they helped in this exposure.

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What did the journalists find out?

• The American and global media have long periodically mentioned Joe Biden's likely age-related problems, including slow speech, episodes of loss of orientation in space, and indecision in public speaking. They also discussed cases when he stumbled on an airplane ramp or made serious reservations during press conferences — confusing the names of the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, saying "Iraq", meaning Ukraine, and so on. These episodes raised questions about his condition.

• Tapper and Thompson claim that the former president's cognitive abilities began to deteriorate ten years ago. In 2015, Biden's son Bo died as a result of an illness, and it was a great shock for him, after which he could not recover. As a result, Biden found it difficult to focus during the conversation, and he began to forget important things. This was evident in recordings of Biden's conversation with writer Mark Spitzer, who helped write his memoirs "Promise Me, Dad" and "Keep Promises. In life and politics."

• Sources in the book also claim that the Biden team began to suspect something was wrong during the election campaign in 2020. Due to the pandemic, communication with voters took place online, and the presidential candidate's malaise at that time could be disguised. So, the video recording of the conversation with the Americans, which took place in an online conference, had to be heavily edited. Sources told the authors of the book that they had to try to hide from the rest of the voters the fact that Biden could not focus on the conversation and answered inappropriately.

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• Already during his presidency, speechwriters were forced to shorten Biden's speeches as much as possible so that he could reproduce them without mistakes and remember important details. In addition, he had to take into account that he could not stand for a long time.

• However, there were still difficulties in expressing thoughts. So, Biden met twice with colleagues in the Democratic Party to ask them to support the law on investments of $1.2 trillion, but he said something unintelligible. During both meetings, he never uttered the request itself. Some, including then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, preferred to think that it was a cunning strategic move. In November 2021, the initiative was finally signed.

• In 2022, Biden's condition continued to deteriorate, he confused and forgot names. In 2023, the former president met with Special Prosecutor Robert Gur on October 8 and 9 to talk about the illegal storage of classified documents. The report noted that Biden could not focus and very often lost his way in testimony. Biden's entourage was furious that the prosecutor did not exclude remarks about poor memory from the report. Most of Biden's advisers believed that Gur would not remain in office during Biden's proposed second term.

• Biden often stumbled and fell, including boarding the presidential plane. As a result, a short ramp was used in 2024, which was about twice as short as usual.

By the 2024 election race, Biden's condition was already difficult to hide. So, he publicly made a slip of the tongue and called himself a black woman. But everything became clear to most Americans during the televised debates on June 27, 2024 (we discussed these debates in more detail here). Biden looked stunned, he couldn't express his thoughts clearly. Despite the fact that he soon admitted that he had "screwed up," he insisted to the last that he would win the election. However, just a few weeks later, under strong pressure from the party, he withdrew his candidacy.

• Tapper and Thompson's book is not the only high—profile investigation into the cover-up of information about Biden's health. So, the staff of the publication Project Veritas secretly met with the deputy chairman of the National Committee of the Democratic Party, David Hogg, and the former employee of the digital strategy department of the White House under Biden, Desterrian Jones. According to the investigation, the real power was concentrated in the hands of the gray cardinal, the assistant to the wife of the head of state, Jill Biden Anthony Bernal.

What was the reaction?

• Many Americans were aware of Biden's health problems. Therefore, the revelations collected in the book did not become a discovery for them, but only confirmed the correctness of the fact that they did not vote for the former president in the 2024 elections. American journalists praised Tapper and Thompson for having the courage to write a book on such a complex topic.

At the same time, members of the Biden family and his closest associates expectedly criticized the authors of the book, accusing them of trying to cash in on the former president's name through innuendo.

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• Biden was credited with many illnesses, including senility, even during his presidency. However, it will not be possible to reliably confirm this, because the state of health of any person is a medical secret. Official medical data is unlikely to ever be made public. Therefore, "Original Sin" and similar investigative materials will always be criticized for the lack of confirmed data.

What will be the consequences?

• Dozens of people from Biden's entourage suspected that he was not physically or mentally ready to become president of the United States, but nevertheless helped him to achieve this position and stay in it when he could not properly perform his duties. The disclosure has hurt the reputation of the Democratic Party, which is already going through hard times after Trump's victory.

• However, it recently became known that Biden was diagnosed with cancer with metastases. This forced the Democrats to stop criticizing him because of the lost elections. Now they should focus on finding a party leader who would unite disparate politicians. This figure will have to not only stand up to the Republicans, but also regain the trust of his constituents.

• The publication of "Original Sin" and other investigations about Biden will also lead to increased media and public attention to issues of transparency, ethics, and political responsibility of American politicians. In addition, the book will increase polarization in the political environment and become a tool in the information struggle between various groups of influence.

• Buddy Carter, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, has already proposed creating a special body to investigate exactly how Biden's team hid information about his health. He demands to find an answer to the question of who exactly ruled the country during Biden's presidency.

When writing the material, Izvestia interviewed:

• Vladimir Mozhegov, an American political scientist;
• the American political scientist Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak.