
Original Sin
President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again
Random House Large Print (Publisher)
Published on 10. June 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
464 pages
979-8-217-17021-0 (ISBN)
Description
An explosive inside reckoning with one of the most fateful conspiracies inAmerican political history—the concerted effort by the President’s team to hidehis mental decline.
In Greek tragedy, the protagonist’s effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. 2024 is theyear American politics became a Greek tragedy.
From the beginning of the Biden administration, some journalists, including Alex Thompsonand Jake Tapper, focused attention on signs of Joe Biden’s frailty. For their efforts they weresubject to extraordinary levels of personal vitriol from the White House, and even fromsome of their journalistic colleagues. Whatever the self-awareness of the perpetrators, itwas sheer gaslighting. In Original Sin, the check comes due.
Tapper and Thompson relate in vivid detail what Team Biden knew, when they knew it, andwhat they did or didn't do about it—including many news-making stories from some of themost powerful players in American politics. There is a general awareness of the effort toprotect his public image, but the details the authors have unearthed are genuinelyshocking. They raise fundamental issues of government accountability and responsibility,and of the role the news media plays. The irony is biting: in the name of defeating anexistential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle lost their way, and ensured thathis party’s nomination process was short-circuited, the public was given cause to doubt hisgood faith, and his Vice President was put in a situation that more than anything elsedoomed her to defeat. The deception, sometimes self-deception, surrounding Joe Biden'sdecline was the original sin of the administration and led directly to Donald Trump's returnto power and all that has happened as a consequence.
Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is a reminder that the ends mustnever justify the means. The ends are ultimately unpredictable, and in reality, the meansare all we have.
In Greek tragedy, the protagonist’s effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. 2024 is theyear American politics became a Greek tragedy.
From the beginning of the Biden administration, some journalists, including Alex Thompsonand Jake Tapper, focused attention on signs of Joe Biden’s frailty. For their efforts they weresubject to extraordinary levels of personal vitriol from the White House, and even fromsome of their journalistic colleagues. Whatever the self-awareness of the perpetrators, itwas sheer gaslighting. In Original Sin, the check comes due.
Tapper and Thompson relate in vivid detail what Team Biden knew, when they knew it, andwhat they did or didn't do about it—including many news-making stories from some of themost powerful players in American politics. There is a general awareness of the effort toprotect his public image, but the details the authors have unearthed are genuinelyshocking. They raise fundamental issues of government accountability and responsibility,and of the role the news media plays. The irony is biting: in the name of defeating anexistential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle lost their way, and ensured thathis party’s nomination process was short-circuited, the public was given cause to doubt hisgood faith, and his Vice President was put in a situation that more than anything elsedoomed her to defeat. The deception, sometimes self-deception, surrounding Joe Biden'sdecline was the original sin of the administration and led directly to Donald Trump's returnto power and all that has happened as a consequence.
Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is a reminder that the ends mustnever justify the means. The ends are ultimately unpredictable, and in reality, the meansare all we have.
More details
Edition
Large type / large print edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Diversified Publishing
Edition type
Large type / large print edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
450 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-217-17021-0 (9798217170210)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Jake Tapper | Alex Thompson
Original Sin
President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again
Book
05/2025
The Penguin Press
€21.00
Available immediately
Persons
Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson