Latest news with #andHisDisastrousChoicetoRunAgain
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Bill Clinton: Biden ‘was in good shape'
Former President Clinton said in a Sunday interview he thought former President Biden was 'in good shape' when they spoke recently. In an interview on 'CBS News Sunday Morning,' Clinton said he did not read the book 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again' by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson, but he said he never questioned whether Biden was fit to lead. 'No, I thought he was a good president,' Clinton said. 'The only concern I thought he had to deal with was, could anybody do that job until they were 86?' 'And we'd had several long talks,' he continued. 'I had never seen him and walked away thinking he can't do this anymore. He was always on top of his briefs.' Clinton also clearly said 'no' when asked whether he ever saw any cognitive decline. 'So I didn't know anything about any of this, and I haven't read the book,' he said. 'I saw President Biden not very long ago, and I thought he was in good shape, but the book didn't register with me because I never saw him that way.' On why he didn't read the book, Clinton suggested it was a distraction and a way to blame Biden for Trump's election. 'I didn't want to because he's not president anymore, and I think he did a good job,' Clinton said. 'And I think we are facing challenges today without precedent in our history, and some people are trying to use this as a way to blame him for the fact that Trump was reelected.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Bill Clinton: Biden ‘was in good shape'
Former President Clinton said in a Sunday interview he thought former President Biden was 'in good shape' when they spoke recently. In an interview on 'CBS News Sunday Morning,' Clinton said he did not read the book, 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again' by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson, but said he never questioned whether Biden was fit to lead. 'No, I thought he was a good president,' Clinton said. 'The only concern I thought he had to deal with was, could anybody do that job until they were 86?' 'And we'd had several long talks,' he continued. 'I had never seen him and walked away thinking he can't do this anymore. He was always on top of his briefs.' Clinton also clearly said, 'no,' when asked if he ever saw any cognitive decline. 'So I didn't know anything about any of this, and I haven't read the book. I saw President Biden not very long ago, and I thought he was in good shape, but the book didn't register with me because I never saw him that way.' On why he didn't read the book, Clinton suggested it was a distraction and a way to blame Biden for Trump's election. 'I didn't want to because he's not president anymore, and I think he did a good job,' Clinton said. 'And I think we are facing challenges today without precedent in our history, and some people are trying to use this as a way to blame him for the fact that Trump was reelected.'
Metro
3 days ago
- Politics
- Metro
Biden jokes he 'can beat the hell out of' authors on his decline after cancer di
Former President Joe Biden joked that he can 'beat the hell out of' two authors who wrote about his decline while delivering his first public remarks since his cancer diagnosis. Biden, 82, knocked several criticisms of him at once while speaking to reporters at a Delaware Memorial Day event on Friday. 'You can see that I'm mentally incompetent and I can't walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,' he said. The 46th president was referring to journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, who co-wrote Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Biden said he is 'optimistic' about the treatment plan he is under for his Stage 4 prostate cancer. His office announced on May 16 that doctors discovered a 'small nodule' on his prostate. 'We're underway and all the folks are very optimistic,' the ex-president said. 'The expectation is we're going to be able to beat this. It's not in any (other) organ. My bones are strong, it hasn't penetrated. So I'm feeling good.' He added that it's 'all a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill, and for the next six weeks, and then another one, the expectation is we're going to be able to beat this'. Biden said 'I don't have any regrets' about seeking a second term before being forced to drop out of the race following a disastrous debate against now-president Donald Trump. 'There's a lot going on. And I think we're in a really difficult moment, not only in American history, in world history. I think we're at one of those inflection points in history where the decisions we make in the next little bit are going to determine what things look like for the next 20 years.' More Trending He also said he is upset that American politics are 'so divided'. Biden's aides are under new scrutiny after the book detailed signs of his physical and mental decline in his last year as president. A White House spokesperson on Thursday alleged that former First Lady Jill Biden conspired to hide her husband's health from the public. The former president spoke on a day that coincided with the 10th anniversary of his eldest son Beau Biden's death from brain cancer. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Elon Musk shows up with black eye to Trump's event bidding him farewell MORE: Adele Roberts facing fresh health issue three years after being declared cancer-free MORE: Ex-CIA chief reveals where in Europe he thinks Putin will invade next
San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
California Democrats postpone ‘difficult conversation' about age of party leaders
The California Democratic Party is not going to have a senior moment of reckoning at its three-day convention starting Friday in Anaheim, choosing to 'postpone' considering a resolution urging a mandatory retirement age for state and local officials. As the nation's largest state Democratic Party, the body's endorsement would be influential at a time of growing dissatisfaction with party leaders. Only 27% of the respondents to a March NBC News poll had a positive image of the Democratic Party — the lowest mark in the history of the survey, which found that 39% of respondents felt positively about the Republican Party. The author of the resolution, Eric Kingsbury of San Francisco, said Thursday he was disappointed that the party delayed this 'uncomfortable conversion,' even as the New York Times bestseller list is led by 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.' 'We need the fierce urgency of now in our leaders, and we're not seeing it, and we need to understand the generational change is part of bringing that urgency forward,' said Kingsbury, an elected member of the board steering the Democratic party in San Francisco. 'We have to show voters that we understand that what happened in 2024 was unacceptable, that what happened with Joe Biden was unacceptable, and that we are making changes as a result. 'That's why we have to have this conversation,' he said, 'because you can't just say, 'Yeah, yeah,' and sweep it under the rug. Republicans did that with Reagan, but we're better than that.' The party's resolutions committee said it 'postponed' the San Francisco proposal because that is a term that the committee uses when it has to conduct research or seek input from stakeholders, or when a resolution is not written correctly and requires extensive changes, said party spokeswoman Robin Swanson. It will be eligible to be considered at the party's Executive Board meeting this summer. 'The resolution was just postponed for this meeting so the Committee has more time to work with the author,' Swanson said. This conversation stalled at a time when many others in the party aren't hesitating to challenge norms about age and seniority. This month, the allegations in 'Original Sin,' by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, bled into California's 2026 governor's race. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa accused two Biden cabinet members he may face in in the campaign — former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra — of being among those who were 'intentionally complicit or told outright lies in a systematic cover up to keep Joe Biden's mental decline from the public.' 'Voters deserve to know the truth, what did Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra know, when did they know it, and most importantly, why didn't either of them speak out?' Villaraigosa asked in a statement this month. 'This cover up directly led to a second Donald Trump term — and as a result, all Californians are paying the price.' Harris has not responded to requests to respond to Villaraigosa's comments while Becerra, who entered the race in April, said in a statement that 'I met with President Biden when needed to make important decisions and to execute with my team at HHS. It's clear the President was getting older, but he made the mission clear: run the largest health agency in the world, expand care to millions more Americans than ever before, negotiate down the cost of prescription drugs, and pull us out of a world-wide pandemic. And we delivered.' Meanwhile, a left-leaning, youth-led group called Leaders We Deserve announced it would spend $20 million in the midterm elections supporting younger progressive challengers to incumbent Democrats representing safe blue districts. Group leader David Hogg, however, said it would not be funding a challenge to 85-year-old Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, even though she has drawn a young, progressive challenger much like those the group is backing. Pelosi, who is a voting member of the local Democratic Party, declined to comment on the resolution, but voted against it through her representative on the panel. The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, is in the process of kicking out Hogg, who is 25. The party is asking its officers, including Hogg, to remain neutral during primaries or resign. However, party officials say that Hogg's PAC is not why they're contesting his recent election. DNC chair Ken Martin said Hogg's election is being reviewed due to a 'procedural error in the February Vice Chair elections.' Saikat Chakrabarti, who is challenging Pelosi in 2026, told me, 'I do think we should have a conversation. I don't think it's just for the party. It's for people in government in general. We should be having a conversation about what limits there should be, whether that's age limits or term limits.' Chakrabarti knows this dynamic well. He was a top campaign aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she was a 29-year-old New York bartender who defeated Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent and member of the Democratic House leadership. He later served as Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff. 'We have millions of Americans talking about it, especially in light of 'Original Sin' hitting No. 1 on the bestseller list. So we can't avoid this conversation,' Kingsbury said. 'And the Democratic Party I've always been a part of, since I registered (to vote) on the day I turned 18, is not a party that avoids having difficult conversations because they're difficult.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Original Sin, the Biden Cover-Up Book, Is Better Late Than Never
The public at large is now well aware that Democratic Party elites worked to hide President Joe Biden's cognitive decline from the public, and the mainstream media was either complicit in this scheme or incurious enough to unmask it. Critics of the media, including many conservative, libertarian, leftist, and independent thinkers, have thus been enjoying something of a victory lap—the exposure of the Biden cover-up is a great told you so moment for contrarian commentators. Given all this, nonliberals were clearly disinclined to extend the benefit of the doubt to CNN's Jake Tapper, who has just published a book about Biden's decline. That book, co-authored by Alex Thompson, an Axios reporter who did pursue the Biden decline beat with some fervency, is called Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Tapper has drawn criticism, including from Megyn Kelly, for previously dismissing Lara Trump when she raised the issue of Biden's infirmity. In response, Tapper asserts that his dismissiveness was a huge mistake and that he is ashamed that he did not pursue this story more aggressively. In any case, the book should be judged on its own merits. And even readers who are profoundly distrustful of Tapper should pick up a copy. It's very good. Original Sin contains a wealth of new information, even for people who have closely followed developments in the cognitive decline cover-up. Here are some of my reactions to the relevant passages. Tapper and Thompson persuasively demonstrate that the shielding of Biden from public scrutiny was accomplished by a shockingly limited number of top aides, nicknamed the "politburo." Just four or five people were in the know: advisers Mike Donilon, Steve Richetti, and Anita Dunn; Chief of Staff Ron Klain; and an incredibly small handful of others. By carefully limiting his public appearances, they managed to estrange Biden from his own Cabinet (though not entirely), congressional leaders, and ultimately voters. Contrary to some media assertions, Biden's cognitive decline was not a sudden development late in the campaign. His capacities had been greatly diminished for years. If anything, the real turning point was the death of his son, Beau, in 2015. While he still had some good days in the following years, there was a clear difference in his overall behavior. To that end, the COVID-19 pandemic was an exceedingly lucky break for Biden, because it gave him an excuse to campaign virtually, in a carefully controlled environment. The demands of a regular campaign would have exposed Biden as unfit for office, even in 2020. The decision to run for reelection was made by Biden, in consultation with his family: Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, and other people with the last name Biden. It was not made by his aides. It was announced to them, and they did not protest. In fact, the aides had essentially learned never to question the Biden family: Staffers who did ask questions were quickly sidelined. Jill Biden's senior adviser, Anthony Bernal, was a particularly militant enforcer. While the politburo was highly effective at hiding Biden, many Democrats had ample reason to suspect something was amiss. Anonymous former Cabinet officials tell Tapper and Thompson that their (infrequent) meetings with the president were so painful that it made them fearful for the country's national security. It is telling that none of them went public about this at the time, a decision that should haunt Cabinet officials who aspire to future office: most notably, Pete Buttigieg and, of course, Kamala Harris. What should we take away from all of this? Next time a president virtually disappears from the public, refuses to meet with officials in the mornings and evenings, and looks like a shell of his former self during the rare moments he is out and about, the media might just want to ask a question or two. Even so, better late than never. We are taping Free Media later this week, so the new episode isn't out yet. Check the Reason's Free Media YouTube channel for fresh content later tonight and tomorrow! I'm joining another internet news and debate show! You're probably thinking that between Free Media and Rising, the last thing the world needs is more commentary from Robby Soave. To that I say: Let the market decide, mwahaha. The show is called The Group Chat, and it's debuting on 2WAY, a new platform and YouTube channel pioneered by journalist Mark Halperin. It's a five-person debate that spans the political spectrum, featuring Batya Ungar-Sargon, Dan Turrentine, Emma-Jo Morris, Nina Turner, and me. Episodes will air on Thursdays at 4 p.m., and our debut episode is today. Tune in! The post Original Sin, the Biden Cover-Up Book, Is Better Late Than Never appeared first on
