Binding: Paperback
Date Published: 20 May 2025
The must-read new book that upends everything we thought we knew about the 2024 US presidential election.
'Explosive' Guardian
'Explosive' The Times
'Explosive' Daily Mail
'Explosive' Politico
'Explosive' New York Times
In Greek tragedy, the protagonist's effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. In 2024, American politics became a Greek tragedy.
Joe Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the White House with the stated goal of saving the nation from a second Trump term. He, his family and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again that they lied to themselves, allies and the public about his condition and limitations. At his debate with Trump on 28 June 2024, the consequences of that deception were exposed - all but dooming the Democrats to defeat later that year.
Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Here, two of America's best-respected political journalists take us behind closed doors to reveal the extent of Biden's decline and who knew about it, from White House staffers to senators to Hollywood celebrities. They paint President Biden's decision to run for re-election as shockingly narcissistic, delusional and reckless - and the wider cover-up as an act of unprecedented public deception. Rarely has hubris met nemesis so explosively.
The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will endure for decades. In the name of defeating what they called an existential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle ensured it, marking the beginning of a remarkable campaign of denial and gaslighting against the American public. His decision to run again was the original sin of his presidency - the moment that led directly to Donald Trump's return to power and all that has come since.
'How American voters became victims of one of the great political cover-ups of modern times . . . It was the gaslighting of a nation.' The Times
'A damning, step-by-step account of how the people closest to a stubborn, aging president enabled his quixotic resolve to run for a second term.' New York Times
'The shocking truth of the last year of Biden's presidency . . . Original Sin presents a scathing account of an elderly, egotistical president cocooned from reality.' Guardian
'Original Sin's simple assessment of the 2024 race is more compelling than anything else I've read about it . . . Extensive reporting and clear-eyed prose.' Washington Post