A newly released book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, claims that then-President Joe Biden struggled so severely with his health during his 2024 re-election campaign that staffers were forced to scrap large amounts of campaign footage due to his inability to speak clearly or stay on script.
According to authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, Biden’s team attempted to film campaign material in a controlled setting at a high school in Delaware. The setup included pre-scripted questions and was carefully staged to limit the risk of unscripted moments. Yet despite the tightly managed environment, the footage was reportedly unusable. While some blamed poor lighting, staff insiders said the real problem was Biden himself.
“The man could not speak,” one campaign aide allegedly said. “He couldn’t find the words, couldn’t remember what he was trying to say, couldn’t stay focused. It was painful to watch.”
Similar challenges reportedly plagued other attempts to film campaign messages. Keynote speeches had to be heavily edited or tossed altogether, and even short clips were difficult to complete without numerous takes, intense scripting, and post-production corrections. In many cases, campaign staff resorted to slowing down video footage, editing out long pauses, and piecing together phrases to present a coherent message.
The book paints a picture of a president whose public image was carefully constructed behind the scenes to hide a growing decline in mental and physical capacity. This revelation follows mounting concerns about Biden’s health, including recent reports of an advanced cancer diagnosis and recorded interviews in which he appeared confused or struggled to recall basic facts.
While the White House has publicly dismissed concerns about Biden’s ability to lead, the accounts described in Original Sin raise serious questions about transparency, decision-making within the administration, and who was truly managing the presidency in its final year.
The claims are likely to intensify calls from both critics and some within Biden’s own party for a deeper look into how long the president’s condition had been known—and what voters were kept from seeing.