It is common to experience profound emotional tension when wrestling with powerful, conflicting realities about which one feels deeply.
That has been the case for me since I learned that former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer — shortly after I learned about a new book concerning the extent to which Biden’s inner circle allegedly covered up his pronounced cognitive and physical decline. The book, which was written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, is titled “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”
As a prostate cancer survivor, I earnestly pray that Biden’s symptoms will be substantially mitigated and that his body responds well to treatment. His age is an aggravating factor, but scientists have confirmed that cancer treatments have advanced significantly during the past decade — and Biden will have access to the best medical care in the world.
Yet, even as I strongly root for Biden’s health, I am extremely troubled that members of his closest handlers apparently hid from the public — and even other staffers — the deterioration of his mental and physical state during his presidency. Having listened to several interviews that Tapper and Thompson have granted ahead of their book’s release, I am left dumbfounded.
According to the authors, who interviewed roughly 200 people, Biden’s worsening condition became evident as early as 2019. By 2023, those who are closest to him decided that they needed to “hide” him as much as possible. They intentionally shielded Biden from other senior White House officials and other administration members — including the Cabinet.
According to Tapper and Thompson, “You also saw the (president’s) schedule became much tighter and much more restrictive.”
Like millions of others, I was stunned to learn in April 2023 that Biden had decided to mount another presidential bid, even after having what I believe will go down as one of the most important terms in history. I had assumed, wrongly, that his five decades of public service would have satiated his desire to remain in power. Further, while I obviously did not know just how poorly he was faring, the fact that he had lost a step was painfully clear.
Yet, this ultimately is not simply about one person’s judgment. It is also about a small cadre of people who arrogated to themselves the responsibility for deciding that a man who was no longer fit to occupy the Oval Office should remain in it. Frankly, I’m surprised that, in our modern context, Biden’s people could pull off this level of political intrigue. This is not Woodrow Wilson’s or Franklin Roosevelt’s day, wherein it was much easier to keep a president’s health from prying eyes.
In one interview, the book’s authors asked rhetorically how many options there were for the senior staffers. They opined that, had the staffers made their concerns widely known, Biden likely would not have changed his mind about running again. (That, of course, was even more reason to have “outed” him.)
Further, the staff was concerned that going public would have helped Donald Trump. Their view is that an impaired Biden — surrounded by a strong team — was preferable to Trump regaining the White House.
The authors state that the belief among the team was that, “When you elect a president, you also elect the people around him.”
While I am very sympathetic to the view that having Trump back in office would be disastrous, I’d like to believe that I would have made a different decision than Biden’s people.
Notably, I have not yet heard the authors talk about former Vice President Harris’ role. Presumably, Harris could have ended the cruel charade, though likely not without damaging herself politically. (I assume that this topic, as well as Biden’s family’s role, are both covered in the book.) The authors do note that at least one senior staffer left the White House because he/she did not want to be a part of the “cover-up.”
Another option would have been for Biden’s team to have challenged him, if discreetly, about his decision to run again. Apparently, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken broached the subject of Biden’s fitness for office with him. Biden mildly rebuffed him; that was that.
Finally, the blame doesn’t end with Biden and his team. The media also failed us. Tapper himself has admitted that he should have dug deeper to uncover the truth of Biden’s condition during his presidency. Unfortunately, no amount of second-guessing or self-flagellation will change the facts — or the results of the 2024 election.
Now that Trump has been back in office more than 100 days, roughly half of America is doing its best to deal with the fact that he is doing precisely what he said he would do. It remains to be seen whether the direst predictions about his second term will come to pass.
Regardless, it will be difficult to avoid the temptation to dwell on “what might have been” had Biden’s staffers decided not to set aside their loyalty in favor of propping up a good man whose time in leadership should have come to an end.
