Original Sin

President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

By: Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson

Narrated by: Jake Tapper

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Superbly reported . . . Reads like a Shakespearean drama on steroids."—Los Angeles Times

"Explosive."—The New York Times

"[The] most significant book to date about Biden’s cognitive decline."—The Atlantic

"Destined to stand alongside classics like Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960 and even Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s All the President’s Men as one of the great books about American electoral politics.”—Richard Aldous, Persuasion

From two of America’s most respected journalists comes an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.

In Greek tragedy, the protagonist’s effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. In 2024, American politics became a Greek tragedy.

Joe Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the White House with the stated goal of saving the nation from a second Trump presidential term. He, his family, and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again, they lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations. At his debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, the consequences of that deception were exposed to the world. It was shocking and upsetting.

Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters, revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. From White House staffers at the highest to lowest levels, to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, from governors to donors and Hollywood players, the truth is finally being told. What you will learn makes President Biden’s decision to run for reelection seem shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional, and reckless—a desperate bet that went bust—and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents. The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will continue for decades.

The irony is biting: In the name of defeating what they called an existential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle ensured it, tossing aside his implicit promise to serve for only one term, denying the existence of health issues the nation had been watching for years, dooming the Democrats to defeat. The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, leading directly to Donald Trump's return to power and all that has happened as a consequence. Rarely does hubris meet nemesis more explosively. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is essential listening.

©2025 Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A damning, step-by-step account of how the people closest to a stubborn, aging president enabled his quixotic resolve to run for a second term.”—The New York Times

“Original Sin is not really a 'campaign book'—its account of the 2024 election largely ends after Biden drops out—but its simple assessment of the race is more compelling than anything else I’ve read about it . . . Original Sin is rarely better than when Tapper and Thompson are writing—with extensive reporting and clear-eyed prose—about the disaster that Biden caused . . . Over the next year, dozens of books will appear that attempt to explain this election. It’s hard to imagine any doing better than that.”—The Washington Post

“A reconstruction of what Democrats should have known and when they should have known it.”—Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show

This is the start of the truth

I enjoyed this book even though I know Jake trapper is lying through his teeth that he didn’t know anything about it

Say it ain’t so

In an effort to stop what they saw as a threat to democracy, Biden and his team made choices that may have hurt it instead. Ignoring his earlier suggestion to serve only one term and downplaying clear health concerns, they set the stage for a likely loss. His decision to run again sparked a campaign built on denial, ultimately paving the way for Donald Trump’s return. No matter your politics, Original Sin is a must-read.

Willful Ignorance & Blame Game

The book starts out by saying it won’t confirm the notion that Biden was essentially senile, then goes on to do just that. The whole book is pushing the narrative that no one could have seen this coming, as his staff aids his him from the world. Then gives numerous examples of how everyone around him knew something was wrong. If you’re looking for new insight, you’ll find some. However, it seems the goal of this book was to blame the election loss on Biden, and cover everyone’s butt that said he was fine and argued in his defense. Towards the end of the book you get into the “Trumps bad too” argument you come to expect. Shame on those closest to him allowing this to go on for as long as it did, and pushing him to run for a second term.

informative insight

I was worried, given it is written by a prominent CNN anchor, that it would be biased. But I'm happily surprised to tell you it's not bias, but rather it's a very straightforward and matter of fact report of people's direct experience of what might be the greatest cover-up in modern political history.

I find it interesting that despite saying explicitly Biden's decline doesn't begin till 2022, Trapper reports multiple Democrats who were worried about his mental state as far back as 2020! I think the lesson here is that power, in and of itself, has its own power, and that power is hard for people to resist

Painful, yet compelling revelations, worthy of your attention.

The unfortunate truth that aides closest to Biden were is such deep denial that only he, Biden, an 82 year old cognitively impaired man could defeat Trump, arguably a degenerate, compulsive liar.

Nothing ground breaking

The build up to this book made me think there was some smoking gun, but basically this whole book was “he’s old, he forgot this. He’s old he couldn’t recognize this guy”. Nothing really new or exciting

Not a whole lot!

Very one dimensional story. The narrator’s dialogue delivery was annoying.
Kamala Harris campaign was not dealt with at all.

Detailed, a lot of new information with sources previously unwilling to talk

Exhaustive, well written, clarifies what happened in 2024 election with Biden, his staff, and the Democrats

Nothing much new here

If you listen to Fox News you know the details. Nothing much new here but still a good listen hence the rating.

Nothing we didn't already suspect

One line summary: Everyone saw that Biden was demented, and most of them tried to craft a digestible lie for the public. And now for the rest - Now that we know what we know, it's clear that Tapper could have done a much better job digging into what was really going on with Joe Biden. Preserving power was the primary objective of everyone around Pres. Biden. I almost felt bad for him, because the death of Bo and then Hunter's addiction clearly took a toll on him, but if was really the 'good" man so many in the book think he is, he would have stepped down, and a true primary could have happened so we wouldn't have gotten the awful Kamala Harris. This book is basically a summary of what we all saw and were told to ignore, or were told were "cheap fakes" or whatever other lie they were spinning that day. My takeaway is that you cannot trust Democrats at all. Now they've conveniently dropped the news that Biden has cancer, the day before this book's release, to make him more sympathetic? Do I even believe he has cancer? Or is that just another lie? I tend to think it's the latter. The Democrats will blame everyone but themselves and point fingers rather than taking responsibility, always. That's so sad. I voted proudly for Obama/Biden both times and am so disillusioned. Then they wonder why people aren't supporting them anymore. The bigger, more important book, yet to be written is who was REALLY IN CHARGE for those four years??