What I’m Reading: Original Sin

Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again is an investigative accounting of what happened behind closed doors in the White House during Joe Biden’s presidency. The book, based upon more than 200 insider interviews, details the reality that Joe Biden while President was not even fit enough to run a 7-Eleven, let alone an entire country. Written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and coauthored by Alex Thompson, Original Sin characterizes Joe Biden during his presidential term as a feeble, often demented octogenarian surrounded by a politburo. This politburo consisted of a small, tight-knit group in former President Joe Biden’s inner circle and they functioned as the “ultimate decision-makers” in Joe Biden’s White House. This became glaringly obvious as President Biden’s health and cognitive function continued to decline causing a political controversy.

What also became obvious during Joe Biden’s presidential tenure was that his politburo and Democratic colleagues were attempting to hide from the American public the president’s ineptitude. This proved to be a challenging feat as President Biden made many public gaffes, stumbled multiple times literally and figuratively, and dramatically failed at the 2024 Presidential debate with former President Trump. The 2024 Presidential debate, in which President Biden often mumbled, made incoherent sentences, and seemed at times paralyzed on stage, proved to be the nail in the coffin for Biden’s second term presidential aspirations.

However, the book purports that Joe Biden’s politburo of unelected family members and politicians still tried to ensure Joe Biden’s presidential reign did not end after one term. Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed — and also family members such as first lady Jill Biden and the president’s son Hunter Biden– were members of Biden’s Politburo. None of them wanted to give up the wealth and prestige of presidential power despite Biden’s deserved public fall from grace. Thus, they tried to keep him in office and attacked anyone who pointed out that the emperor was wearing no clothes.

This public denial and continued coverup of Biden’s dementia was spearheaded by Joe Biden’s wife. Surprisingly, first lady Jill Biden, who at one time had been a reluctant political spouse, eventually did not want to leave the White House. And so she publicly encouraged her husband to run for a second term despite the painful truth that everyone saw at the 2024 Presidential debate – that Joe Biden had no business being anywhere near the White House. Jill Biden’s support for her husband running for a second term has been compared to Lady Macbeth.

At best Joe Biden could be described as a board member in the White House who generally agreed with his Politburo. His weakness was apparent to anyone who looked with honest eyes. Biden no longer had the vigor nor the speaking abilities he did during most of his political career. In fact, according to the authors of Original Sin, President Biden could only function semi normally for a few hours daily (if that). And by the end of his presidential tenure Biden had become a relic of his former self. Thus the Biden coverup ensued, causing fear and upset from the American public who knew they were being lied to.

Different motives were at play among the Democrats who were complicit in the Biden cover up. Suprisingly, though, a few honest voices spoke up. For instance, actor George Clooney, who observed President Biden’s dementia firsthand at an event, spoke out against Biden’s second term aspirations. But Democrats like George Clooney were few and far between. Most Democrats, with the support of the mainstream media, were very supportive of President Joe Biden and pretended not to see his public mishaps.

Followingly, President Biden’s first and only presidential term can be characterized by abject failures that were touted as successes to the American public. This included Biden’s administration opening up the country’s border and allowing millions of unvetted strangers to enter the country, the support of transgender rights over the rights of women in women’s sports, rising gas prices, and the DEI policies which proved to be discriminatory and tribal. Just as important, Biden presented so poorly in public that the U.S. position on the world stage began to falter.

BOTTOM LINE: Unlike many other modern political commentaries, Original Sin is a comprehensive investigation and explanation of what happened during Joe Biden’s presidency. The many insider sources interviewed for this book offer detailed information and anecdotes of life inside the Joe Biden White House. Written factually yet with feeling, this book provides a full accounting of the disaster that was Joe Biden’s presidency, which can be attributed to the hubris, dementia, delusion and dishonesty of the people running it.