Book reveals behind-the-scenes look at Biden's hidden decline and reopens Democratic wounds
By shining a harsh light on the “original sin” of the 2024 US election, two journalists have reawakened the trauma and divisions within the Democratic Party.
"Democrats rocked again by recent allegations of Biden's fragility hidden by those around him," The Washington Post headline reads . More and more party figures are "publicly questioning the handling of the last election," the newspaper noted in an article published in its May 15 edition.
The origin of this self-criticism is a book published by two journalists, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again .
“Based on more than 200 interviews, the book paints a damning portrait of an elderly, self-centered president, shielded from reality by a servile clique of loyalists and close associates, united in a seemingly ironclad denial, and determined to smear anyone who dared question the president's fitness for office,” summarizes a review in the same Washington Post .
Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book recounts, among other things, that in June 2024, Joe Biden failed to recognize George Clooney, the actor he knew well (and who would break his silence the following month, after a disastrous debate). This episode is at the heart of the long text taken from this book that The New Yorker published , under the title: "How Joe Biden gave the presidency to Donald Trump."
Like this headline, Democratic figures are not mincing their words about the former president's truncated campaign: "Biden has messed us up so much," says David Plouffe, a former adviser to Barack Obama who worked on Kamala Harris's campaign when the vice president replaced Biden. Another prominent strategist is quoted anonymously in the New Yorker :
“He stole an election from the Democratic Party, he stole it from the American people.”
Joe Biden himself recently appeared on BBC News and ABC to defend his record, much to the dismay of some Democrats who feared he would give the Trump camp more fodder. Within the party, many would prefer to move on and focus on the radical measures taken by Donald Trump, explains the Washington Post. Others, however, believe that a soul-searching about Biden's candidacy is necessary "to regain voters' trust."
Has the party sinned? “Maybe,” acknowledgedPete Buttigieg , a former Biden secretary and possible 2028 candidate. He added, however, “We are not in a situation where we can dwell on the past.”
