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CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson discuss their investigation into Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign.
President Joe Biden’s aides knew his health was deteriorating. They debated how to handle it. Then they supported his decision to run for re-election.
In “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson document how Biden’s aides, advisers and allies backed his re-election bid despite growing concerns about his health—and how silence inside the administration shaped the 2024 campaign. Based on more than 200 interviews, the book outlines what senior staff, Cabinet officials, donors and political allies knew, when they knew it, and why few spoke up.
Tapper is CNN’s chief Washington correspondent and anchor of “The Lead.” He is also the author of “The Outpost” and two New York Times bestselling political thrillers. Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios and a former White House reporter for Politico and The New York Times. Together, they bring deep access and sharp reporting to one of the most consequential stories of the 2024 cycle.
They will discuss the reporting behind the book, the risks Biden’s team took, and what it all meant for the outcome of the election.
Topics include:
The conversation will be moderated by DC Public Library Executive Director Richard Reyes-Gavilan.
ABOUT THE BOOK
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.
Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters, revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. From White House staffers at the highest to lowest levels, to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, from governors to donors and Hollywood players, the truth is finally being told. 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—and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents. The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will continue for decades.
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 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.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jake Tapper
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
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 reporting on Joe Biden in 2024. 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.
This program is supported by the DC Public Library Foundation and Solid State Books.
AGE GROUP: | Seniors | Adults | 13 - 19 Years Old (Teens) |
EVENT TYPE: | Author Talk |
