The biggest politics book of the year from two of America's most respected journalists
'Explosive' Guardian
'Explosive' The Times
'Explosive' Daily Mail
'Explosive' Politico
'Explosive' New York Times
Joe Biden his family and his senior aides were convinced that only he could beat Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election. So convinced, in fact, that they lied to themselves, allies and the public about his condition and limitations – all but dooming the Democrats to defeat. Here, two of America’s best-respected political journalists take us behind closed doors to uncover the full, unsettling truth about Biden’s decline, and exposing the wider cover-up as an unprecedented deception of the public.
Hailed as an instant classic of political journalism, ?this is the book that revealed Biden's decision to run again as the original sin of his presidency - leading directly to Donald Trump’s return to power, and all that has come since.
About the Author
Jake Tapper is the chief Washington correspondent for CNN. An Emmy Award-winning TV journalist and twice New York Times-bestselling novelist, in 2024 he chaired the Trump-Biden debate that began the unravelling of the president's re-election campaign. A Dartmouth graduate and Philadelphia native, he lives in Washington, DC with his family.
Alex Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios and a CNN contributor. Before that, he created Politico's West Wing Playbook newsletter and worked at the New York Times and Vice News. A Harvard graduate, he lives in Washington, DC.
Industry Reviews
Damning and well-documented.
TELEGRAPH
A scathing account of an elderly, egotistical president cocooned from reality seeking re-election in 2024 despite significant concerns about his declining health and cognitive abilities.
GUARDIAN
Tapper and Thompson's portrait of a decrepit American president is devastating... Original Sin succeeds because it has a strong thesis and an arresting narrative, delivered in made-for-TV episodes.
FINANCIAL TIMES
A fascinating insight... this book shines a blinding light on the extent to which Joe Biden was ageing rapidly, becoming tired and confused and patently unfit for a second term in office.
iNEWS
Explosive . . . Tapper and Thompson have done the [Democratic] party a favor. Some sort of reckoning is due for the disastrous missteps that that paved the way for Trump’s return.
MICHELLE GOLDBERG, co-author of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
[The] most significant book to date about Biden’s cognitive decline, which was written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson and draws on hundreds of interviews . . . To their credit, they do little editorializing. The book is written not unlike an autopsy report, describing a gruesome political car crash in dispassionate, clinical detail.
ATLANTIC
Superbly reported . . . Reads like a Shakespearean drama on steroids.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Original Sin is not really a 'campaign book'—its account of the 2024 election largely ends after Biden drops out—but its simple assessment of the race is more compelling than anything else I’ve read about it . . . Original Sin is rarely better than when Tapper and Thompson are writing—with extensive reporting and clear-eyed prose—about the disaster that Biden caused . . . Over the next year, dozens of books will appear that attempt to explain this election. It’s hard to imagine any doing better than that.
WASHINGTON POST
A damning, step-by-step account of how the people closest to a stubborn, ageing president enabled his quixotic resolve to run for a second term.
NEW YORK TIMES
Original Sin is a comprehensively sourced autopsy of the agonised end to Biden’s 50-year career. It’s accusatory, indignant, righteous – and convincing.
NEW STATESMAN
An authoritative indictment of a denial-plagued presidential run . . . This tough yet fair account of an ageing president’s inauspicious reelection campaign makes a strong case that voters deserve to know more about their commander-in-chief’s health.
KIRKUS
It’s hard to think of a book which has shifted the political dial to this extent in recent years.
POLITICO
How American voters became victims of one of the great poltiical cover-ups of modern times . . . It was the gaslighting of a nation.
THE TIMES
Destined to stand alongside classics like Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960 and even Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s All the President’s Men as one of the great books about American electoral politics.
RICHARD ALDOUS, author of Persuasion
A necessary and deeply disturbing account of the Biden White House. For anyone interested in politics and Shakespearean tragedy, there’s something on every page.
ROLLING STONE
A bombshell book . . . damning revelations
INDEPENDENT
Original Sin has captured the Zeitgeist in a way rare for political books not centered on Donald Trump. The best-selling, heavily reported exposé by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson paints a picture of President Joe Biden’s rapid physical and mental deterioration in office.
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
