Revisiting Biden’s Decline
May 28, 2025
The firestorm new book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson is titled Original Sin. The term Cover-up is in the subtitle.
Perhaps a bit much. “Cover-up” implies a crime (as in, “the cover-up is worse than the crime”). “Original sin” invokes a supposed primordial transgression that condemned all humanity to perdition.
Well . . . arguably so, if the “sin” here resulted in Trump’s second presidency.
At issue is how White House people and the news media handled President Biden’s cognitive decline. Had that played out differently, the 2024 election might have too.
Biden was wrong to plan on running again, at his age and condition. Had he stood down sooner, a normal nomination process might have produced a different candidate.
Rather than a non-white female. But Harris was not a lousy candidate. In fact, she ran a great campaign, given the circumstances. That voters, foolishly bedazzled by an idea of “strength,” went for a convicted felon who’d tried to overthrow the government, is on them, not Biden and Democrats.
White House insiders did try to manage the challenges of Biden’s waning functionality. What else could they do? Stuck in the situation, they strove to hold things together as best they could. Perhaps they might have tried to talk him down. Easy to say, but hard to do. Even a diminished president cuts a powerful figure, and they still had a high regard for him. Their efforts to protect him, and maintain a facade of normalcy, were not venal. Publicly outing him was not seriously an option. They believed that, at the end of the day, we’d be better off with even a handicapped Biden than with Trump. Certainly justified.
The book also faults news media for failing to spotlight Biden’s decline. It even tips a hat to right-wing media which did press that story-line. But c’mon. It’s not as though this was some big secret. The general public could see it — a big reason why Biden’s candidacy was struggling in polls.
Partly due to those right-wingers making it an issue, calling Biden a senile dodderer. But that was actually disgraceful, they didn’t have the goods. The truth that later did emerge was more nuanced. No testament to any responsible perspicacity on their part.
Back to mainstream news, they weren’t covering up information they had. If anything, Biden’s stumbles (verbal and physical) were assiduously reported. Some in the media were queasy about that, worried it would help Trump, with dire consequences. But still, a juicy story could not be resisted.
And just how far gone was Biden? At a March 28, 2024 event, my wife and I had a photo op with him. Then watched him in an extended conversation onstage. Then he showed up and spoke at a late night reception. All three times I observed nothing concerning. So at least he was still capable of making himself seem okay.
Inside the White House, he may have been something of a figurehead, with others doing the heavy lifting. But the buck still stopped with him; he set the direction. And all the evidence shows Biden never fell down in his basic presidential responsibilities. He fulfilled them appropriately, guided by half a century of deep experience and understanding of public affairs. There was nothing like Trump’s erratic tariff craziness.
And in the end, regarding re-election, Biden made the right decision. Painful though it was for him, from a personal standpoint. He put such considerations aside and did the right thing.
Something Trump never would. Whatever Biden’s infirmities, they must be juxtaposed against Trump’s. Through it all, Biden was sane. Trump is not. Biden is a decent human being who cares about others. Trump is the antithesis. Biden acted responsibly trying to serve the public interest. Trump never does; a FUBAR egomaniac.
If news media did not adequately inform us about Biden’s condition, its “original sin” regarding Trump was far worse. Complicit in normalizing all his rottenness, when they should have been screaming with their hair on fire. Where’s the book about that?
If I could choose today, even now I’d rather have Biden as president than Trump.