On its official Amazon page, its lead promotional quote is highlighted in bold: “The book Biden allies fear the most.” Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s new tell-all book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” is being marketed as an anti-Biden book — and deservedly so.
Had Biden somehow managed to wrest his party’s nomination and win a second term, the allegations in the book would trigger congressional hearings ASAP.
It probably wasn’t coincidental that Joe Biden just did his first post-presidency interview — along with a sit-down with the yapping yentas on “The Views” last week. The Bidens’ goal was to undermine the book’s credibility by showing how Ol’ Joe was still vibrant, clever, and had all his marbles.
Alas, Biden is gonna Biden. His withered, meandering performance ended up doing the exact opposite: It reminded Americans that Biden’s brains had turned to mush, thus underscoring the book’s urgency.
It was the best sales promotion possible!
As for the book itself, I’ve only read excerpts (including this stunning piece in today’s New Yorker, which is the basis of this article). In what I’ve seen so far, it’s unclear if George Clooney has acknowledged being a source to the authors. (Or, as the Biden loyalists may call him, a “rat.”) But officially or not, my best guess is that Clooney was not only a first-person source, but also played a very big role in shaping the book’s direction.
Very often, when you see the same person quoted precisely by multiple people in all kinds of different locations and events, it’s because he’s the one who’s giving the reporter the quotes. That’s the first tipoff.
The second tipoff is when all the quotes and explanations make one guy look like a million bucks — and everyone else look like putzes, yutzes, and dingbats. And in “Original Sin,” George Clooney looks like the last sane man in the Democratic Party.
Pretty much everyone else — including ex-President Obama! — comes across as a liar, coward, or schemer.
(It’s not proof of Clooney’s involvement, of course. I’m just giving you my best guess, based on my media experience. Mr. Clooney, please don’t sue me and/or steal my wife.)
Either way, if what the book claims is true, it’s one helluva story: How a Hollywood actor shamed his own party and forced out the sitting president!
(Might make a good movie, too. Just sayin’. And you know who’d be perfect for the part of Clooney? George Clooney!)
Anyhoo, George Clooney’s first meeting with then-Senator Biden was way back in 2001. Since then, they had interacted dozens of times. Clooney’s activism in Darfur led him to skip the 2009 Academy Awards, opting instead to meet with President Obama and Vice President Biden, hand-delivering 250,000 “Save Darfur” postcards.
Clooney was also a prodigious Democratic fundraiser.
By the time Biden had reached the Big Boy seat in the Oval Office, Biden and Clooney were very familiar with each other. The book goes out of its way to make that crystal clear, which makes this scene even more dreadful:
By the time the 2024 Presidential race had begun, the actor had known Biden for decades and had known him well for fifteen years. He had last seen Biden on December 4, 2022, when Clooney was in D.C. with his wife, Amal, to be celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors. Biden looked older, sure, but in the East Room of the White House, at the reception for the honorees, the President was playful and seemed cogent enough.
“We see Amal Clooney’s husband,” the President said, to laughter.
Yes, he was reading from prepared remarks, but far be it from an actor to take issue with someone reciting lines.
“Mentors—he mentors these—those historic kids from Parkland on their march and their lives—against gun violence,” Biden said, stumbling a bit. “I met with every one of those kids, and they really appreciate what you did, George. Not a joke.”
Parkland?!
Look, I’m not a medical expert, but if you’re confusing GEORGE FREAKING CLOONEY with DAVID HOGG, you’re clinically insane, period, end of story.
Unfortunately, Biden’s bouts with brain fog weren’t a one-off. The tale of Biden and Clooney’s next interaction, at their blockbuster 2024 Hollywood fundraiser, is even worse:
Biden hobbled out from around the corner. Clooney knew that the President had just arrived from the G-7 leaders’ summit in Apulia, Italy, that morning and might be tired, but, holy ****, he wasn’t expecting this.
The President appeared severely diminished, as if he’d aged a decade since Clooney last saw him, in December, 2022. He was taking tiny steps, and an aide seemed to be guiding him by the arm.
“It was like watching someone who was not alive,” a Hollywood V.I.P. recalled. “It was startling. And we all looked at each other. It was so awful.”
“Thank you for being here,” the President said to guests as he shuffled past them. “Thank you for being here.” Clooney felt a knot form in his stomach as the President approached him. Biden looked at him. “Thank you for being here,” he said. “Thank you for being here.”
“You know George,” the assisting aide told the President, gently reminding him who was in front of him. “Yeah, yeah,” the President said to one of the most recognizable men in the world, the host of this lucrative fund-raiser. “Thank you for being here.”
“Hi, Mr. President,” Clooney said.
“How are ya?” the President replied.
“How was your trip?” Clooney asked.
“It was fine,” the President said.
It seemed clear that the President had not recognized Clooney.
“It was not O.K.,” recalled the Hollywood V.I.P. who had witnessed this moment. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know—especially a famous person who’s doing a fucking fund-raiser for you—it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”
“George Clooney,” the aide clarified for the President.
“Oh, yeah!” Biden said. “Hi, George!”
Later on, Biden’s aids try to blame Biden’s senility on his travel schedule: Poor guy was working himself to hard!
Clooney was shellshocked. Others noticed Biden’s woes, too:
Clooney was shaken to his core. The President hadn’t recognized him, a man he had known for years. Clooney had expressed concern about Biden’s health before—a White House aide had told him a few months before that they were working on getting the President to take longer steps when he walked—but obviously the problem went far beyond his gait. This was much graver.
This was the President of the United States?
Clooney was certainly not the only one concerned. Other high-dollar attendees who posed for photographs with Obama and Biden described Biden as slow and almost catatonic. Though they saw pockets of clarity while watching him on television, and onstage later that night, there were obvious brain freezes and clear signs of a mental slide. It was, to some of them, terrifying.
Obama didn’t know what to make of how his former running mate was acting. At one point, in a small group of a few dozen top donors, Biden began speaking—barely audibly—and trailed off incoherently. Obama had to jump in and preside. At other moments, during photos, Obama would hop in and finish sentences for him.
Sure does seem like lots of VERY prominent Democrats were involved in the “Biden is fine” con, eh?
After Biden “finally beat Medicare” during his Hindenburg-like performance during his June 27, 2024, presidential debate, Clooney felt dutybound to do something — and President Obama tried to talk him out of it!
This was too much for Clooney. He reached out to Obama to tell him that he was considering writing an op-ed to call for Biden to drop out. Obama advised that doing so would only make Biden dig in deeper.
In his home office in the South of France, Clooney sat down at his laptop. “I love Joe Biden,” Clooney wrote. “As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.”
But, Clooney added, “the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
The book also reveals that Clooney’s letter didn’t blindside President Biden: His advisors were briefed.
Clooney sent a copy to Jeffrey Katzenberg and told him to show one of Biden’s closest advisers, Steve Ricchetti.
Ricchetti read it and was furious. Internally, he threatened to shut Clooney down—some of his colleagues thought he sounded like a Mob boss.
Word came back that Ricchetti suggested it would be better if Clooney held it a week.
Thirteen days after the debate, on July 10, Clooney’s op-ed was published in The New York Times.
Eleven days later, Joe Biden withdrew from the race.
The final line of The New Yorker excerpt says it all:
Democrats deceived the country about Biden’s abilities and, Clooney said, “that’s how Trump won.”
