Claiming that the White House staff lacked a complete understanding of President Joe Biden’s true state, a new book reveals how Andrew Bates, a former deputy press secretary, defended Biden’s mental clarity.
“Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” delves into the inner workings of the Biden White House and endeavors to minimize concerns regarding the president’s mental and physical fitness. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson write, “Some of Bates’s colleagues believed that Biden’s inner circle took advantage of his loyalty and told him to deny things they knew were true.” The book details the inside story of the Biden administration.
“He, along with most of the press team, rarely met with the president and didn’t have firsthand knowledge of the president’s wherewithal,” according to the book. For answers, they turned to top personnel. Nevertheless, Bates gladly became the spearhead of the White House’s effort to thwart any reporting on Biden’s acumen, putting his own reputation at danger.
During Biden’s presidency, Bates handled several requests for comment from reporters and is cited around six times in the book. She was likely the most visible face of the public-facing defense of Biden, second only in prominence to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“Shame journalists and create a disincentive structure for those curious about the president’s condition.” This is the stated goal of the book, which delves into the allegation that the Biden campaign and the White House had a “modus operandi” of “attacking any journalist who covered any questions about the president’s age.”
In case you were wondering, the answer is no, Joe Biden does not hold a Ph.D. in international relations. Posting on X two weeks after Biden’s press conference, Bates said, “He’s just that f—ing good.” Many saw Biden’s performance in the debate as the turning point in his campaign.
After reflecting on such comment, the book said that it “reflected the views of the Politburo but among professional Democrats, it became an instant legend for its sycophancy and tone-deafness.”
Bates told Fox News Digital that the book’s account of his life “is distorted, stretching select facts while excluding others.” And he laughed it off.
Bates was defended by a former Biden White House aide who told Fox News Digital, “This gets important facts wrong.”
As the president’s top spokeswoman, Bates accompanied him on his travels and meetings around the nation and on Capitol Hill, as well as in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One. That is known to the public. He was the go-to guy for big political and legislative matters in the press office, the ex-White House aide went on to say. “He was known for being respectful and considerate if a colleague didn’t want to do an interview for a challenging story, whether it was about policy or anything else.”
In June, an explosive Wall Street Journal story revealed concerns about Joe Biden’s decline. However, as the book explains, former White House deputy chief of staff Steve Ricchetti vehemently denied the allegations that the president was slipping to another journalist “weeks” before the story broke.
“[A] reporter with a different national news outlet had been hearing from White House aides that behind the scenes the president was having serious and disturbing moments, forgetting names and facts, sometimes seeming seriously confused at meetings,” according to the book.
“The reporter reached out to members of the White House press office, which not only aggressively — and angrily — disputed her reporting but also took the unusual step of having Steve Ricchetti call her,” according to the book. She was unable to utilise his comments or even cite him as ‘a White House source,’ as their conversation was off the record. But he assured her that the claims made by the others were completely unfounded, and that he was indeed present at the meetings in his capacity as a presidential advisor.
White House officials were reportedly making every effort to manage public impression of Biden’s health, according to Tapper and Thompson.
“The message from the White House was clear, this reporter believed: If she went forward with the story from anonymous aides, the White House would aggressively dispute it, on the record, and portray her as a liar,” according to the book. “The tacit threat worked.”
Many on both sides of the political spectrum have responded strongly to the book, with many criticizing the media for their portrayal of Biden’s mental acuity and pointing fingers at Biden’s staff for trying to hide the truth.
Fox News Digital has covered the subject of Biden’s cognitive deterioration and the efforts by his inner circle to conceal it extensively, beginning with his 2020 presidential campaign.
Joe Biden’s granddaughter Naomi Biden was among many who have spoken out against the book’s framing. She had harsh words for the new book, describing it as “silly” and “political fairy smut.”
Even Tapper’s network, AWN, has come under fire for marketing the book; presenter Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” and “The View” was among many who blasted AWN for doing so in light of Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis.
According to a Biden representative who talked with Fox News Digital, the book does not support the authors’ claims of a cover-up or conspiracy, nor does it demonstrate that Joe Biden did not fulfill his duties as president, as they have claimed.
They don’t prove that our country’s security was in jeopardy or that the president wasn’t attending to other crucial issues related to his office. Indeed, Joe Biden was a skilled and compassionate leader who accomplished much as president.