In reading Original Sin, the blockbuster book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, I vividly remembered covering then-candidate Joe Biden when he came to my hometown in April 2019 to begin his run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
As someone who covered Biden for decades because he frequently visited the state in which he was born, I could not help but notice something was off — not in the way that would become apparent incrementally over the next five years, but he certainly was not the man who had jogged down Liberty Avenue in the Labor Day Parade four years earlier to chants of, “Run, Joe, run.”
By the time Biden secured the nomination one year later, the country was in mask mode, and Biden wore one all the time. He told others to do the same, called on governors to enforce mask mandates, and said it was the collective responsibility of all of us to do so. In short order, most of his events were adjusted to prioritize safety, so they were smaller, and social distancing was the rule.
What were those masks hiding? What were those small, conveniently timed, sparse campaign events hiding? The mask mandate was not lifted until four months into Biden’s presidency, and it was only lifted for vaccinated people. It was clear in 2021 that this was not the man I saw in 2015.
It was also clear he was not the man I saw in 2019, when I noticed something was off.
Within the first few pages of Original Sin, one is struck by the blunt, vivid, and troublesome reporting, and that gets to the darkness behind why it all happened: power. It was power that was unchecked by my profession and was used to destroy or weaken anyone who questioned Biden’s abilities.
Tapper, along with Thompson, noted on Wednesday in an interview with Stephen A. Smith that Democrats’ approval is in the toilet after hiding Biden and the limitations of his ability from the public.
“I think there are a lot of reasons, too, why Democrats have damaged themselves, and not just Democrats by the way, institutions in general, the media … the failure to acknowledge certain realities,” when it came to shutting down schools and the George Floyd riots, he said, listing several sins of the past few years.
“That is why there is a crisis of confidence in the news media, in the Democratic Party, in institutions,” Tapper said. He added that he thinks it all needs to be hashed out and discussed to right the ship.
That is not going to happen if there isn’t some sort of reckoning or remorse from those who abused power, Tapper said.
“We never got somebody that said, ‘We should never have done this. I can’t believe we did it. In retrospect, it was a mistake,’” he said.
Coming away from the book, it is clear that a small, tight-knit group of seasoned political veterans, including Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Bruce Reed, Jill Biden, and the president’s son Hunter, committed the original sin through their egos and insatiable need for control.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), in a recent interview with the Washington Examiner, said he has not yet read the book, in which he appeared several times. On Page 239, Shapiro tells the then-president he has concerns about him, but Biden pushes back, and Jill Biden abruptly ends the conversation.
However, Shapiro had some warnings about how power like what was used by Biden’s inner circle happens.
Most importantly, Shapiro said that as an elected official, one must never surround oneself with people who only say what one wants to hear.
“I think one keeps themselves in check by surrounding themselves with people who tell the principal, ‘No,’ who can stand up to the principal,” he said. “Again, I haven’t read the book, but the problem is when that principal thinks the job is to accumulate power. That’s not the job. The job is to use the power that’s inherent in the oath of office you take to do good for people.”
Shapiro said surrounding himself with people who don’t tell him what he wants to hear but what he needs to hear keeps him grounded.
“Being able to have enough respect for your colleagues at work that you can spar with them on different ideas or different approaches is important. I’ve got a chief of staff, Dana Fritz, who’s been with me for 12, 13 years, and I respect that if she tells me, ‘No,’ or she has a different perspective, I listen to that,” he said.
As a reporter covering then-Sen. Biden, I had no problem requesting an interview and, within reason, being given access. But that ability waned midway through the second term of his vice presidency. As many other reporters experienced, there was zero access to interview him. Emails and requests went unanswered. As someone who does not live in Washington, my access was even more limited than someone who was covering him in the district.
What is most important about this book is how deeply the layers were peeled back. It is an opening to find out more. There is a very good chance this can undo the structure of legacy media and unleash more power in independent media.
JAKE TAPPER AND THE MEDIA’S CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
No one should have the power to deem that he or she can contort and undo the democratic process in the name of “saving democracy.”
Those in my profession, as well as the Democrats who enabled this, who have learned from this, are the ones who have apologized with the four R’s of true regret: recognition, responsibility, remorse, and reform. Those who have not will continue to do exactly what the Biden family and his inner circle did — but the next time, they won’t get away with it.