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

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Financial Times, Kirkus Reviews, and The Associated Press

"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 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.

In Original Sin, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters—from White House staffers to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, and from governors to donors and Hollywood players—revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. 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.

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 and denying the existence of health issues the nation had been watching for years. The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, and directly to Donald Trump’s return to power—and all that has happened as a consequence. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is essential reading.

Jake Tapper wrote the bestselling nonfiction book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, which was turned into a critically acclaimed film in 2020, and two New York Times bestselling novels, The Hellfire Club and The Devil May Dance. He is an Emmy Award-winning TV journalist as lead DC anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN. A Dartmouth graduate and Philly native, he lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, daughter, son, three dogs, and cat.

Alex Thompson is a National Political Correspondent for Axios and a CNN contributor. He won the White House Correspondents' Association award for overall excellence in White House coverage for his 2024 reporting on Joe Biden. Before that, he created Politico’s West Wing Playbook newsletter and worked at The New York Times and Vice News. A Harvard graduate, he lives in Washington, DC. He has no pets, but is a proud uncle.