CNN’s Jake Tapper is publishing a book that chronicles President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and the scandalous “cover-up” after he spent years participating in said cover-up.
On Tuesday, Tapper promoted the book on X with Axios reporter and CNN contributor Alex Thompson titled, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Choice To Run Again.
“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 Amazon description reads. “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 reading.”
But if Tapper’s book is “essential reading,” the explosive clip below of the author gaslighting viewers himself about Biden’s cognitive capabilities is essential viewing. When Lara Trump called Biden’s mental acuity into question amid the presidential campaign four years ago, Tapper accused her of “mocking his stutter” after the Democrats exploited a 13-year-old stutterer at the nominating convention.
“How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel,” Tapper said, after Trump expressed pity for the former vice president’s frequent inability to speak. “I think you were mocking his stutter.”
“I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline,” Tapper said. “Plenty of people have diagnosed your father from afar, and I’m sure it offends you, your father-in-law.”
Two days after the interview, Tapper posted excerpts from the 1992 book by Ben Cramer, What It Takes, documenting the Delaware senator’s apparent stutter.
Tapper had previously responded to Trump’s remarks about Biden’s health months before the October 2020 interview by posting an Atlantic piece on X. The article, authored by magazine writer John Hendrickson, made the case that Biden’s frequent mumbling throughout the Democrat primary was the consequence of a life-long struggle rather than late-age deterioration.
“His verbal stumbles have voters worried about his mental fitness,” Hendrickson wrote. “Maybe they’d be more understanding if they knew he’s still fighting a stutter.”
Four years later, in June 2024, Tapper himself would moderate the debate where voters could see Biden’s clear cognitive decline on national display. Biden’s on-air confusion was so catastrophic for the incumbent candidate that the performance catalyzed a coup within the Democrat Party to replace the nominee. Biden dropped out of the race by August, in time for the party to nominate then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Daily Wire reported Tuesday that Tapper’s co-author similarly participated in the cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline. In June 2023, Thompson wrote a story for Axios titled, “Biden’s weird words.”
“Biden’s quirky aphorisms are sometimes weaponized by Republicans to insinuate the 80-year-old president is in mental decline,” Thompson reported. “But Biden has been using unique phrases for years — but even some of his aides aren’t exactly sure what he means by them.”
Now, Thompson and Tapper will be publishing a book claiming they were completely gaslit by the White House about the commander-in-chief’s mental acuity. The irony, in their words, is genuinely “biting.”