JAKE TAPPER ’91
Political Hubris
Written by CNN journalist Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, this book of political reporting reads like a cross between a thriller (which Tapper also writes) and a Greek tragedy. Fast paced and well researched, it assembles what seems to be an ironclad case against President Biden for deciding to run for a second term despite a preponderance of evidence—much of it concealed by his inner circle from the public and from Biden himself—that his failing health was disqualifying.
The details, drawn from a host of insider sources mostly speaking anonymously, are chilling. Biden’s memory was increasingly spotty. He would repeat stories he’d told minutes earlier. He failed to recognize longtime acquaintances such as movie star George Clooney, who later wrote a bombshell op-ed calling for him to step down. Biden’s gait was stiff, his physical stamina reduced to a few hours each day. By the time Biden’s weakened state was shockingly exposed in his disastrous televised debate with Donald Trump in June 2024, it still took three more weeks for him to accept reality. He was clearly unfit for four more years in the White House, and yet he stayed in the race so late that his would-be successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, had insufficient time to build a successful campaign.
Why? That’s the part of this book that is most like Greek tragedy, a genre in which character is fate. Tapper and Thompson make clear that Biden’s belief in his stubborn resilience proved in the end to be his downfall. He’d been knocked down many times in his career and always bounced right back; why would this time be any different? He was the one—the only one—who’d saved American democracy from Trump, and he’d do it again, whatever the naysayers said.
It didn’t help, the authors demonstrate, that the president’s closest advisors—including his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, embattled son Hunter, and a few top staffers ominously nicknamed the “Politburo”—continually hid or downplayed his frailty. If Original Sin has a villain, it’s Biden’s top aide Mike Donilon, whose rose-colored interpretations of the latest polls convinced the president he had a decent chance of winning the election long after he clearly did not. Antiheroes doom themselves, sometimes with a little help from their friends.
