Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on President Joe Biden’s Decline, and Its Cover-Up

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

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Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

Nearly a year ago, a Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN, began the end of Biden’s bid for a second term. The President struggled to make points, complete sentences, and remember facts; he spoke in a raspy whisper. This was not the first time voters expressed concern about Biden’s age, but his decline was shocking to many, and suddenly Trump seemed likely to win in a landslide. New reporting by Tapper and Thompson reveals that the debate was no fluke at all. In “How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump” (an excerpt from their new book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”), they lay out a case that the latter half of Biden’s Presidency was carefully stage-managed by his top aides; Biden would often end the workday as early as four-thirty. “What [aides and] others would say is, ‘His decision-making was always fine.’ The job of the President is not just decision-making. It’s also communication,” Tapper tells David Remnick. “If you are a President . . . and you’re not able to go into a room full of donors and speak extemporaneously for ten minutes, then there’s something wrong. And that was happening in 2023.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the political scene.
0:07.0	I'm David Remnick.
0:08.3	Early each week, we bring you a conversation from our episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:15.6	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:22.4	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Nearly a year ago, last June, we sat down to watch the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It was the first and only debate, and it was moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN. Biden's
0:39.6	struggle to complete sentences, to remember facts. At times, he made no sense at all. He spoke in a
0:46.3	raspy whisper. Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what
0:53.6	I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing
0:59.3	with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare. Biden had been elected
1:09.9	as the oldest person ever to hold the office.
1:13.1	And prior to the debate, there were moments when his deterioration was certainly worrying.
1:18.8	But the debate itself left him exposed, unmasked. There could no longer be any doubt at all
1:24.2	and no concealment. Joe Biden was an old man getting older, and Donald Trump
1:30.3	was likely to win in a landslide. After the debate, Biden's people said in effect,
1:38.3	nothing to look at here. The president had a cold. He had a bad day. We all have bad days, right?
2:03.4	But it was hard to watch that debate and see it as a fluke. For millions of Americans, the willing suspension of disbelief collapsed right then and there. Who could believe any longer that Joe Biden, no matter what you thought of his achievements as president, could fulfill those duties for another four years.
2:09.2	We know how this story ended, but there's a lot we didn't know until now.
2:16.6	Reporting by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson makes clear that the debate night was not a fluke at all.
2:19.2	Their new book is called Original Sin.
2:24.5	President Biden's decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again.
2:31.1	Jake Tapper is CNN's lead Washington anchor, and he interviewed Biden many times going back to his years in the Senate. Alex Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios.
2:36.5	An excerpt of their book has appeared in The New Yorker, and we'll dig deeper into this story,
	...

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