‘Like watching Grandpa who shouldn't be driving': Biden's health worried aides back in 2020 campaign, book says
Former President Joe Biden's dwindling health dates back to his 2020 campaign, with one Democrat saying that seeing him talk to voters over Zoom was like 'watching Grandpa who shouldn't be driving,' according to a new book.
Shocking revelations about the alleged coverup of Biden's mental and physical decline in 2023 and 2024 were revealed this week with the release of Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.
The book, written by CNN 's Jake Tapper and Axios ' Alex Thompson, coincidentally follows Biden's announcement Sunday that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
While Tapper and Thompson detail concerns about Biden's health dating back to his 2020 campaign, his mental and physical decline accelerated in 2023 and 2024.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Biden shot campaign videos speaking with voters on Zoom, however, hours of footage were deemed unusable due to his poor performance, according to CNN.
'It was like a different person. It was incredible. This was like watching Grandpa who shouldn't be driving,' said one Democrat, according to the book.
'I didn't think he could be president.'
Multiple lawmakers also told the authors that Biden reminded them of ailing parents and grandparents, according to the book.
Excerpts of the book, leaked prior to its release Tuesday, paint the 46th president and his closest advisers in a negative light, detailing his declining mental acuity leading up to the disastrous June debate against Donald Trump.
Tapper and Thompson's book is based on interviews with 200 people, including members of Congress, the White House and campaign insiders.
In response to the book, Biden's spokesperson Chris Meagher said that his team was 'still waiting for someone, anyone, to point out where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or make a presidential address where he was unable to do his job because of mental decline.'
'In fact, the evidence points to the opposite — he was a very effective president,' Meagher added.
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