New reports show that people close to President Joe Biden hide the extent of his decline. Don't worry that sharing the truth may help elect Donald Trump, they're finally clean for journalists. If they were talking earlier, maybe things would look different. The argument of a new book is that the 82-year-old's refusal to address his ability to decline or accept failure is a key factor in Trump's return to power.
Biden's decline has long been evident. Back in 2019, his eyes bleed in the TV-based city hall, he said "look, fat" to Iowa voters after challenging him to push-ups. By early 2024, Biden confused the French president with a former French president who died in the 1990s. He performed well after a nightmare debate performance with Trump, the president was forced to quit last summer.
But according to CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson, Biden's deterioration is not the main topic of reporting on most presidency-his decline is actively masked.
Their new book, Primitive Crime: President Biden's Decline, Coverage and His Disastrous Choice Run Againinterviews using more than 200 sources show that people close to Biden are trying to hide his cognitive abilities.
Tapper told The The The , and Tapper told The Lens that the writing of our book by writing is that everything we see in front of the camera is worse. ” New YorkerDavid Remnick in an interview posted on Saturday. The long-term sources of journalists will be even better after the election because they no longer need to worry about opportunities to hurt Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
It's obvious that people around Biden are struggling. As Thompson said, from the end of 2023 to 2024, the decline with the president became "rapid" and shrank from the end of 2023 to 2024.
When he decided to run for reelection, those close to the president thought it was not a good idea. But no one actually told Biden that another bid was irresponsible. Thompson partially accused Biden of creating an atmosphere of dissuasion.
Tapper elaborated: "The focus of Biden is something I've never seen before, maybe until the current administration - a president so surrounded by people, they will never tell him anything negative, never tell him, and will actually prevent the negative from coming to him."
Biden’s cabinet members told Tapper and Thompson that the cabinet meeting was “disturbing and frustrating.” Back in 2021, the meeting followed the script. The reporter reported that in 2022, he forgot the name of one of his top consultants.
October 2023 marked the beginning of what a cabinet member called a "weird period" with no interaction with Biden except Secretary of State Anthony Blink and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Tapper said a secretary who did meet with Biden in the spring of 2024 found him “despicable, incoherent and difficult to understand.”
"But no one came forward," Tapper said. When they complained internally, they were told: "He's fine, keep it quiet."
One person who spoke out loud was actor George Clooney. Thompson and Tapper reported that Biden didn’t know movie stars during a fundraiser co-hosted by Clooney, a fundraiser in June 2024. Biden's aide even told him "You know George", which did not spark the president's memory. Assistant said: "George Clooney. ”
"And he's like, of course, yes. Hey, how are you?" Tapper said. The incident prompted Clooney to New York Times He argued that the Democrats need a new candidate for president.
A spokesperson told Joe New Yorker When they published an excerpt from the book detailing the incident.
What if Biden is re-elected? People close to Biden believe that a constitutional crisis will occur. Members of the Democratic Party would have realized that Biden could not do the job, and Biden's inner circle would have refused to give up power.
"It's not just Donald Trump to be president," Thompson said. "And, I think this frustrating choice for Democrats and the frustrating choices that they faced in the last election.