Former contributing editor to Rolling Stone Matt Taibbi read Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, Original Sin, about the cover-up of Joe Biden’s mental health. The passages from it are damning, the bits that were published in various publications. The New Yorker had a lengthy excerpt that described that infamous Los Angeles fundraiser, where Joe Biden forgot George Clooney’s name, leading the actor to publish that devastating New York Times op-ed that cut ties between the Biden campaign and the Hollywood Left. Around this time, the cash flow for the then-brain-degraded president was starting to slow dramatically.
Yet, Taibbi read the whole thing and had but two words to describe it: hilarious and insane. The book undoubtedly has eye-opening and damaging material to the media, Democrats, and the Biden camp—all of whom knew the former president wasn’t well enough to run again. Still, and this shall be repeated ad nauseum, the people who wrote the book and those interviewed were all in on the cover-up. Moreover, Taibbi noted the timelines don’t add up as Biden feeling wronged for being pushed out, how there were rumors that his inner circle shielded him from bad news, etc.—that’s all likely true. However, the press also said that the race was still a dead heat, and nothing had changed after Biden’s disastrous June debate on CNN. Folks, we know Democrats and Barack Obama especially were getting things ready to push Joe out.
The liberal writer also noted that the premise is off: Biden was fine but then degraded. No, he’s been off since day one, as other newspapers have covered aides noticing Joe’s mental lapses. Taibbi goes back to the 2020 campaign trail, where the Delaware liberal would slur his words, confront voters, and touch people, like holding their arm or hand, for too long—all of which was known as his campaign staff made a note of it. Also, the book glosses over conservative media, which did track Biden’s mental decline and knew he was cooked. Who was running the White House? That’s a legitimate question (via Racket News):
I thought from online buzz that Original Sin was a mea culpa. It would own press failures to cover Joe Biden’s infirmity in a super-belated version of Canadian comic Bruce McCullough’s “I’m sorry I caused all that cancer” routine. But Original Sin isn’t that. It’s much crazier! Instead of a dreary and predictable book-length excuse for thousands of media professionals simultaneously whiffing on the most obvious story in history, it’s an ambitious book-length effort to absolve all concerned, pin an industry’s coverage mistake on its President Droolcup subject (a gambit many times ballsier than blaming one reporter, à la Judith Miller), all while additionally swirling a new storm system of bullshit storylines to delay more serious questions about things like who was just president for four years.
It’s the opposite of a mea culpa and the literary degree of difficulty is awesome, equivalent to a blind unicyclist trying to juggle six chainsaws. Do Jake and Alex pull it off? They don’t! But they sure leave a hell of a lot of blood on stage
[…]
I don’t know Thompson and don’t have anything against Tapper, but it’s all a classic Washington hive-braineurysm. The story is all told from the vantage point of characters like “one prominent Democrat,” “one senior White House aide,” and Barack Obama, who like the God of the Old Testament communicates not through words but omniscient narration (“Obama’s phone was blowing up with texts”; “Obama had arrived at the conclusion that Biden didn’t have a path”; “Obama… never directly told Biden not to run”). Collectively they offer every conceivable self-serving excuse, even ones that contradict one another before the end of the sentence.
I was partial to the unnamed Democrat above who denounced the “abomination” of Biden’s decision but “publicly defended Biden,” or the “top Democrat who called the White House and said, “Every day I’m defending this guy… Someone tell me he’s okay. Like, it doesn’t look great.” If it doesn’t look great, why are you defending him? The same person snitches out Biden aides Anita Dunn, Jeff Zients, and Mike Donilon for not being straight about Biden’s condition, but that person was doing the same thing to the public (and in a sense still is by staying anonymous). It’s all good because they’re talking to each other, not Actual People, or Republicans, or other inconsequential humans. As Megyn Kelly and others noted, the book blows off the conservative media figures who were on Biden’s problems from the jump and absolutely should take that omission as an insult. Still, it’s more indicative of how this book’s sources think, or more where they think; on a different plane, somewhere above.
Meanwhile the authors never address the monstrous ethical/legal issues that should be at issue in a book whose apparent revelations are about Biden’s incapacity being more extensive than known. Who was making decisions in that case, not just about who should be Run Against Trump (all these people seem to care about), but everything?
The Russian collusion hoax, the COVID hysterics, and now this cover-up of a president’s health that is worse than Watergate—the legacy press is finished. And I think, at this point, they know the ending is coming. Even after Trump leaves office, he’s destroyed them. They won’t win back the tens of millions that have gone to other sources for information. They’re too DC-based, elitist, snobby, and attached to the Acela Corridor.
WATCH: CNN's Jake Tapper asked about cashing in on book after he actively participated in the cover-up of Biden's decline
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 29, 2025
“I don't wanna get into where my money comes from...Very few people write books to make money.”
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