A new book claims that aides to former President Joe Biden believed he might eventually need a wheelchair if he had another fall after being re-elected in 2024.
An upcoming book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson asserts that the then-president’s health had declined so considerably in the lead-up to the re-election season that his aides privately discussed whether he would need assistance in getting around in a second term after his doctor warned about another fall.
The book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” is due to be released on Tuesday. It follows other publications, reports, and self-reflection pieces from media and political pundits now admitting what the rest of the world already knew about the octogenarian commander-in-chief.
“Biden’s physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — 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,” an excerpt from the book states.
“Given Biden’s age, (his physician Kevin O’Connor) also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery,” the book continues.
Tapper spoke with CNN about how Biden’s physician had said the president’s “deterioration of his spine, the degeneration was so significant that if he fell one more time, that he might have to be in a wheelchair and serve in a wheelchair, for his second term. But everybody pushed off the notion that he use a wheelchair until after the election.”
New book: Biden’s doctor warned he might need a wheelchair pic.twitter.com/qRsZnTIQVV
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) May 13, 2025
“This is all part of a larger whole where the Biden White House tried to hide the extent of his deterioration, both physical and cognitive, as much as possible,” Tapper added, with no hint of self-awareness.
“In fact, as you we all know, we all saw as his shuffling gait got worse and worse from 2003 to 2004 [2023 to 2024]. They started putting aides around him as he walked to Marine One, the helicopter, that was to kind of hide from public view how bad his gait was, how bad his walking was, his shuffling, and also in case he stumbled again to make sure somebody was there,” he said. “And this is just a piece of an overall campaign to try to conceal from the American people the extent to which the president was really struggling to do his job.”
Social media users reminded Tapper and others how complicit they were in the cover-up.
Everyone knew…
Jake Tapper certainly knew
Only Republicans said it.
— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) May 13, 2025
And you and all the other media companies did everything in their power to cover it up. Let’s not pretend otherwise.
— 1sttimeCaller (@1sttimeer) May 13, 2025
— Marc Escens (@Marc_Escens) May 13, 2025
Thanks for dutifully assisting in the cover-up you pathetic propagandists.
— Joel Schamber (@JoelSchamber) May 13, 2025
This book is basically just a collection of things most of us knew and admitted but that the media overlooked because…they wanted to.
— Scott Paterno, Just a Guy (@ScottPaterno) May 13, 2025
Democrats were kept in the dark. I met a staunch-democrat older woman who did not believe Biden was incognitive and who did not believe he fell going up those steps and many other times and that he was crapping his pants they knew nothing. They also are very stupid people I found out