Forgetting George Clooney to mulling a wheelchair: Five key takeaways from upcoming Biden book
The book detailing former President Joe Biden’s failed reelection bid and the alleged cover-up of his mental and physical decline is due to be released tomorrow.
Its authors, CNN’S Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, share damning allegations about Biden’s mental and physical deterioration in 2023 and 2024 in Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, out May 20.
The book’s imminent release is all the more timely following Biden’s announcement Sunday that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Excerpts of the book that leaked prior to its publication do not portray the 46th president or his closest advisers in a flattering light, as they detail startling instances of Biden’s gaps in mental acuity that were reportedly hidden from the public through 2024.
The disastrous debate against Donald Trump was the moment it all came crashing down for Biden.
Tapper and Thompson’s book is based on interviews with 200 people, including members of Congress, the White House and campaign insiders.
Responding to the claims in the book, Biden’s spokesperson Chris Meagher said that his team was “still waiting for someone, anyone, to point out where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or make a presidential address where he was unable to do his job because of mental decline.”
“In fact, the evidence points to the opposite — he was a very effective president,” Meagher added.
The Independent takes a look at five of the key takeaways from the book:
Biden’s aides discussed the option of putting him in a wheelchair if his reelection bid was successful, the book alleges.
“Biden’s physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn’t do so until after the election,” Tapper and Thompson write.
Aides to the then-president thought it wasn’t politically viable to have Biden in a wheelchair during the campaign.
Because of Biden’s age, his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, they wrote, “privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery.”
Biden didn’t recognize George Clooney — one of the world’s most famous actors and a man he has known for nearly two decades — at a glitzy Hollywood fundraiser.
