Reports of a new book on the presidency of Joe Biden have begun to appear. It focuses on the troubled man revealed for all the world to see in his catastrophic debate with Donald Trump.[1] Biden had been 77 years old when he finally was inaugurated in January 2021. He would have been 82 at his second inauguration. The job of President of the United States would be daunting to almost anyone at any age. To be president in old age would be a much greater challenge. The authors have called upon a host of—mostly anonymous—sources to document the failing powers of an ambitious man of modest abilities.[2]
Even during the original 2020 campaign, Biden had begun to forget the names of people he had known for a long time. His condition worsened as his term progressed. He confused one person with another. In one case with nasty implications, he confused Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, with Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security.[3] Cabinet meetings had to work from a written script. Concern went as far as speculation about the president’s possible need for a wheelchair during a second term.
Apparently, those around Biden recognized his advancing physical and mental fragility. Still, no one took it up with the president himself or, in any forceful way, with those closest to him. The silence was widespread. “No Democrats in the White House or on Capitol Hill raised any doubts, either privately with the president or publicly, about Biden’s second run” say the authors of the book.
Washington is a gossipy town filled with predatory people. If the President makes the usual appearances and meets with donors, Congress people, Senators, the people from the CIA doing the daily Presidential brief, then these people would spot his problems the way a leopard spots a limp. If the President disappears from all the usual appearances and communicates only through his closest staff, then that would be noticed as well. Questions would arise.
The heightened attention and more frequent appearances running with the re-election campaign brought Biden’s limitations to the attention of many more people. Democratic congressmen and donors (like George Clooney) were alarmed by the wreck of a man they now encountered. People from the Obama presidency (William Daley, David Plouffe) tried to line up alternatives to Biden, to no avail. Were Washington insiders just fooled? Did they hope for the best in the election with the expectation that Biden would die or be removed in a second term?
Most likely, many people hope to not be held to account for their parts in foisting off a dotard on the American people.[4] Instead, “Dr. Jill and the Inner Circle” are being made into the goats. The book provides a good deal of material for people to use against Jill Biden. She is described as a “fierce advocate for her husband.” She “grew more involved in his decision-making as he grew older.” OK, which decisions? “Just” re-election? Foreign policy?
[1] The book is Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again (due out on 20 May 2025). The book is discussed in Reid J. Epstein, “Book Promises New Data on Biden’s Mental Decline,” NYT, 15 May 2025.
[2] Unless you think that keeping Robert Bork off the Supreme Court and getting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court is a positive record.
[3] On the upside, he didn’t confuse either one of them with Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury.
[4] It’s impossible to know, at present, if this operation ran only once (before the 2024 election) or if it ran twice (before the 2020 election as well).
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