The lie we lived: a historical pattern of denial
On May 20, 2025, CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson will release their joint exposé, "Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." Excerpts have already surfaced, confirming what millions of Americans suspected long before the first primary vote in 2024: Joe Biden was in no condition, mentally or physically, to run for re-election.
And yet he did. With the full support of White House insiders, protective media figures, and perhaps most crucially, his wife, Jill Biden.
What happened in the 2024 election cycle wasn’t an accident or unfortunate miscalculation. It was a deliberate charade. And if you think it’s unprecedented in the annals of political deception, think again.
We’ve seen regimes build scaffolding around fragile leaders before:
- Muhammad Saeed “Baghdad Bob” al-Sahhaf (2003): Iraq’s information minister told the world there were no American soldiers in Baghdad even as tanks rolled into view on live TV. It was absurd. And it was his job.
- Albert Speer (1945–1981): After serving as Hitler’s armaments minister, Speer cast himself as the “good Nazi,” claiming ignorance of the Holocaust while historical records proved otherwise. He became a case study in selective memory.
- Edith Wilson (1919–1921): When President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke, First Lady Edith Wilson quietly took over key executive functions. The press was largely unaware, and for nearly two years, the nation was effectively run by someone voters had never elected.
- Lyndon B. Johnson (1964): Johnson’s administration manipulated ambiguous naval incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin to justify full-scale involvement in Vietnam. The truth was murky. The power grab was clear.
Each of these examples featured political insiders who knew the truth and concealed it anyway. The rationale? Power, preservation, or personal legacy. The result? Betrayal of the people they were supposed to serve.
Jill Biden: the unelected guardian of the illusion
What Edith Wilson did from behind a closed White House door in 1919, Jill Biden did in full public view throughout 2023 and 2024.
Multiple accounts, including from Tapper’s forthcoming book, detail how Jill Biden tightly managed the President’s schedule, limited unscripted exposure, and dismissed concerns from within the party. Perhaps the most revealing incident came in June 2024, at a Democratic donor event in Philadelphia, when Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro gently broached the subject of Biden stepping aside.
According to attendees, Jill Biden abruptly interrupted, took the President by the arm, and ended the conversation. “We gotta go,” she said, ushering her husband away before anything more could be discussed.
That wasn’t deference. That was control.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, insiders kept referring to Biden’s “golden window” of daily functionality, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., when his cognitive clarity was strongest. Events were scheduled accordingly. Everything else was shielded.
Privately, doctors raised concerns about spinal arthritis and neurological stamina. Publicly, Jill Biden cheerfully insisted that her husband was “as sharp as he’s ever been.”
It wasn’t just loyalty. It was spin.
The media’s uniform messaging
No institution failed harder during the 2024 election cycle than the corporate press. Nearly every major outlet repeated the same tired lines in defense of Biden’s obvious cognitive decline:
- “It’s just a stutter.”
- “He’s always been gaffe-prone.”
- “Behind the scenes, he’s sharp as ever.”
These weren’t observations. They were talking points, copy-pasted from briefing memos and repeated on cable news, late-night shows, and front pages.
Anchors like Jake Tapper, who now claims he was deceived, dismissed early concerns raised by critics as “partisan smears” or “ableist tropes.” CNN, MSNBC, and The Washington Post repeatedly framed Biden’s incoherence as “compassionate communication.” Others suggested that calls for cognitive testing were “disrespectful” or “ageist.”
But now, with Tapper’s reporting confirming that staffers were preparing for the potential use of a wheelchair post-election, the backpedaling has begun. The press is filled with anonymous sources saying they “saw it coming.”
They saw it coming, and they said nothing.
Trump’s return in real time
While Biden’s defenders played damage control, Donald Trump went to work.
By January 2025, Trump had sharpened his message. No longer focused solely on 2020 grievances, he pivoted to policy and performance. While Biden was being propped up, Trump stood tall literally and figuratively.
He began rolling out proposals aimed directly at working- and middle-class Americans:
- Credit Card Interest Reform: A proposal to cap interest rates at 15%, winning support from families buried in debt.
- Prescription Drug Pricing: A plan to tie U.S. prices to international averages, pressuring pharmaceutical giants to lower domestic costs.
- Energy Policy Revivals: Calls for expanded domestic drilling, pipeline reinstatement, and energy independence within two years.
On the campaign trail, he leaned into the contrast. He walked unassisted. Held court for hours without notes. Held live, unscripted Q&As. And when asked about Biden’s decline, he didn’t gloat. He looked straight into the camera and said, “The American people deserve strength at the top. They deserve truth.”
It landed.
By March 2025, independent voters, many of whom had soured on Trump, began to swing back. Not because they had forgotten 2020, but because they could no longer ignore 2024.
What comes next: beyond the ballot
This isn’t just about a failed campaign. It’s about a culture that fears truth more than decline.
In 2025, America stares in the mirror, asking hard questions:
- How long did the insiders lie?
- Why did party leaders stay silent when they knew the President’s health was failing?
- Why did mainstream journalists behave more like campaign aides than watchdogs?
- And most unsettling, how close did we come to electing someone who couldn’t recognize his advisors?
This moment calls for more than political reflection. It demands a cultural reckoning.
Final judgment
Joe Biden’s decline wasn’t sudden. It wasn’t a surprise. It was visible. And the people closest to him, his wife, staff, and the national media, protected the illusion rather than the institution.
In doing so, they didn’t just risk a weak presidency. They sabotaged public trust.
As Donald Trump advances in 2025, his resurgence isn’t just about his message. It’s about the vacuum the Democrats created. While they lied and deflected, Trump reminded voters what unfiltered leadership looked like.
History is harsh with deceivers.
And America may prove just as unforgiving.
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