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Joe Biden’s granddaughter rips Jake Tapper’s new book on former president’s hidden decline

Naomi Biden lashes it as a ‘bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self promoting journalists out to make a quick buck’

Mary Papenfuss
Tuesday 20 May 2025 13:51 BST
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Biden's cancer diagnosis fuels baseless conspiracy theories

Joe Biden’s granddaughter has ripped a new book on the former president’s reported hidden physical and mental decline in the White House as “political fairy smut.”

‘Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again’ byCNN journalist Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson is due out Tuesday, but was leaked early. It has been published shortly after the former president revealed he is battling aggressive prostate cancer.

“Just read a copy of this silly book, and if anyone is curious for a review from someone who lived it first-hand: this book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class,” Naomi Biden posted on X.

Naomi Biden (L), the granddaughter of US President Joe Biden, pictured her husband Peter Neal
Naomi Biden (L), the granddaughter of US President Joe Biden, pictured her husband Peter Neal (AFP/Getty)

“Put simply, it amounts to a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self-promoting journalists out to make a quick buck,” she continued. “It relies on unnamed, anonymous sources pushing a self-serving false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare.

“All [at the] expense of a man so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to ever understand the why or how of it all.”

The book includes damning allegations about Biden’s mental and physical decline while in office in 2023 and 2024, which aides reportedly helped him hide from the public, before he launched another bid for the presidency.

It includes accounts of startling instances of Biden’s reported mental decline, including times when he failed to recognize actor and friend George Clooney, as well as other close friends and colleagues. That was eventually followed by a befuddled presidential debate against Donald Trump.

Joe Biden faced questions over his health during his ill-fated presidency
Joe Biden faced questions over his health during his ill-fated presidency (EPA)

As for Biden's “physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk,” it had become “so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn't do so until after the election,” Tapper and Thompson write in the book.

Biden’s spokesperson Chris Meagher said that he 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.”

The authors could not immediately be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, revelations about Biden’s cancer have raised questions about how doctors could have missed it when he was still in the White House, and triggering conspiracy theories that it, too, was covered up.

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