The Protective ‘Politburo’ That Hid Biden’s Decline
On a special edition of Washington Week With The Atlantic, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper and the Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson joined Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss Original Sin, their new book about when Joe Biden started showing signs of decline—and how some people behind the scenes questioned his fitness to serve as president.
In the four months since Biden left office, a consensus seems to have emerged that the former president’s bid for reelection all but guaranteed Donald Trump’s return to power. “There was the fine Joe Biden … and then there was the nonfunctioning Biden,” Tapper said last night. “And the nonfunctioning Biden would rear his head increasingly and more and more disturbingly as time went on.”
“Now the question is,” Tapper continued, “when did the nonfunctioning Biden emerge so often it was a real question as to whether he should serve for president?”
To see Tapper and Thompson discussing this and more with Goldberg, watch the full episode.