Jake Tapper’s new book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, may be hitting the shelves next week, but it’s already making waves—not just for its content, but for what many are calling Tapper’s attempt to retroactively reposition himself as a truth-teller rather than a gatekeeper.
For critics, especially on the right, Tapper’s project looks less like journalistic bravery and more like an exercise in damage control—a calculated pivot away from years of downplaying or outright dismissing the very concerns his book now spotlights.
By the time the infamous June 2024 CNN debate happened, where Biden’s visible decline could no longer be denied, the cat was not just out of the bag—it had built a house, filed a FOIA request, and started its own podcast. But Tapper, who moderated that very debate, is now co-authoring a book that essentially documents how everyone knew what was going on behind the scenes.
According to Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, the White House wasn’t just managing Biden’s image—it was actively shielding him from Cabinet members, insulating him from direct briefings, and choreographing his public appearances to mask his mental and physical deterioration.
As the book describes it, by 2023 and 2024:
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Biden was only reliably functional for four to six hours a day.
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Officials worried whether he could handle a 2 a.m. crisis call.
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He reportedly forgot names, including Jake Sullivan, his own National Security Advisor.
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Aides practiced walking drills with him before podium appearances.
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Cabinet secretaries were kept at arm’s length, forced to deliver briefings through intermediaries.
Tapper now presents this as a cover-up orchestrated by the White House. The problem? Many recall Tapper’s public defense of Biden—especially in 2020 and 2022—when those very same red flags were raised.
In one striking 2020 moment, Tapper cut off Lara Trump during a CNN interview as she tried to voice concerns about Biden’s mental fitness. Instead of engaging her claims, Tapper accused her of mocking Biden’s stutter—using what has since become known as the “stutter defense” to deflect from what growing numbers now believe were obvious signs of cognitive decline.
Throughout the 2020 campaign, Tapper largely parroted the White House line—that Biden’s gaffes and word jumbles were nothing more than a side effect of a lifelong speech impediment. When asked about Biden’s age in 2022, Tapper tossed the president a softball and even finished his sentence when he visibly lost his train of thought.
Now, Tapper claims he “challenged Democrats and White House officials” all along. But a review of transcripts paints a more selective picture. While Tapper did raise concerns on occasion—especially after the Hur report and the Clooney op-ed—his coverage largely tracked with Democratic narratives, often emphasizing Republican attacks as partisan overreach.
The irony is that many of the moments now seared into public consciousness—Biden freezing on stage, wandering away at G7, or needing Obama to physically guide him—were either ignored or downplayed by Tapper’s show. He wasn’t alone in that, of course. But for someone now positioning himself as a first responder to a political fire, the record shows more of a bystander until it was too late.
And when the Wall Street Journal dropped a damning report in June 2024 detailing Biden’s cognitive decline, Tapper focused not on the content of the reporting, but on the White House’s outraged reaction.
In response to accusations of complicity, CNN issued a robust defense, saying Tapper has long held power to account on both sides. But that’s a difficult case to make when Tapper only seriously leaned into the Biden decline story after it became politically impossible to ignore.
As critics see it, this book is less about breaking news and more about rewriting Tapper’s legacy. By blaming the White House while downplaying the media’s role—especially his own—Tapper may be seeking to salvage his standing as a serious journalist after playing defense for a president whose decline was increasingly visible to everyone except those most responsible for informing the public.
