Cover up of Biden's decline was 'worse than Watergate,' claims Jake Tapper in new book

Alex Thompson on Biden's decline, media blind spots, and "Original Sin"

National political correspondent Alex Thompson joined Jim Lokay on The Final 5 to discuss his new book "Original Sin", co-authored with CNN anchor Jake Tapper. The book, which has generated buzz across the political spectrum, offers a deep dive into President Biden's mental fitness, the Democratic Party’s decision-making process, and what Thompson describes as a coordinated effort to shield the public from Biden’s decline.

WASHINGTON - Veteran D.C. political journalist Alex Thompson joined Jim Lokay on "The Final 5" to discuss his new book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again", co-authored with CNN anchor Jake Tapper. The book, which has generated buzz across the political spectrum, offers a deep dive into President Biden's mental fitness, the Democratic Party’s decision-making process, and what Thompson describes as a coordinated effort to shield the public from Biden’s decline.

Mirror to Democrats

"From the left, the [response] that most surprised me is the continuing insistence of, ‘Why don’t you cover Trump?’" Thompson said. "I think reporting at its best is basically holding up a mirror to people in power regardless of party. This book holds up a mirror to the leadership of the Democratic Party, not just Joe Biden, and I’ve been a little surprised that so many members are still choosing to look away from the mirror rather than look at it and try to figure out what went wrong."

Lokay pressed further, asking whether the Biden team’s handling of the president’s condition was more self-delusion or calculated spin.

"It was both," Thompson explained. "When you have an aging patriarch of the family, there are some members who are in denial and some who take steps to put him in the best light. But when you believe you’re protecting American democracy from a wannabe authoritarian, you can rationalize anything." Thompson added that many in Biden’s inner circle believed that "Joe Biden would be a better president at 100 years old than Trump."

Lokay noted that during the Trump administration, many officials like John Kelly and John Bolton went public with concerns. He asked why more Biden staffers didn’t speak out ahead of the 2024 campaign.

"In some ways, because the Democratic Party revolves around Donald Trump too," Thompson said. "There’s incredible unity within the Democratic Party, and that unity comes from the sincere belief that Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States. That created cohesiveness within the party that doesn’t really exist in the Republican Party."

Thompson, who was honored for his reporting on the Biden White House at the 2025 White House Correspondents' Dinner, also addressed criticism of the media’s coverage of Biden’s fitness for office. 

'Original Sin' author Alex Thompson talks Biden's decline, media blind spots, and the 2024 election

Warnings long ignored

"Every newsroom is its own wild behemoth," Thompson said. "Some reporters let their ideological feelings about Donald Trump influence their reporting. Others were focused on other things or were affected by Washington groupthink. And frankly, there was a reluctance to give oxygen to bad-faith actors who were pushing the idea that Biden was senile long before there was clear evidence of decline. There are a lot of different reasons, and I don’t think there’s one clear-cut answer."

The interview concluded with Lokay referencing a widely discussed comment by co-author Tapper, who said the cover-up described in the book could be "worse than Watergate."

Thompson replied, "What our reporting shows is that members of Joe Biden’s Cabinet in 2014 no longer had the confidence that if there was a 2 a.m. phone call, he was capable of responding with full attention and competency. If you believe that the President of the United States was not counted on to be fully capable at a moment of crisis, that is a scandal. And I completely agree with Jake on that."