The latest book chronicling the disastrous end of Joe Biden’s political career is set to be released next week, and the early reviews suggest it is full of jaw-dropping revelations.
Chief among the bombshell new reporting from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson: The former president’s aides were discussing having him use a wheelchair had he won the 2024 election.
But that is not the only damning detail in Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. And on Tuesday’s Show, Megyn was joined by Buck Sexton, co-host of The Clay and Buck Show, to discuss the shocking info and how the White House and media covered it up.
Wheelchair Worries
Tapper and Thompson interviewed over 200 sources, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the what went on during Joe Biden’s final two years in office for the book, which promises to be an “unflinching and explosive reckoning” with his “run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline” and “amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.”
Axios published an adapted passage from the book on Monday that revealed the then-81-year-old Biden’s “physical deterioration was so severe in 2023 and 2024” that his team “privately discussed the possibility he’d need to use a wheelchair if he won re-election.”
While the White House had attempted to brush off the president’s stiff, unsteady gait as a symptom of a poorly healed foot feature, it was actually allegedly tied to “the significant degeneration of his spine.”
“Biden’s physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn’t do so until after the election,” Thompson and Tapper wrote. “Given Biden’s age, [his physician Kevin O’Connor] also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery.”
Since Biden’s aides felt it would be politically untenable to have the commander in chief in a wheelchair on the campaign trail, they instead looked for shorter walking paths, encouraged the use of handrails, pushed for sneakers, and changed briefing strategies in the wake. These protocols were especially dialed up after the octogenarian tripped over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy in June 2023.
Blame Game
But while the Biden team was worrying about keeping the president upright, senior Democratic officials and strategists were worrying about his ability to beat Donald Trump.
The Guardian obtained a copy of Original Sin and reported that Thompson and Tapper spoke to former Obama advisor David Plouffe on the record about the election woes. Plouffe told the authors Biden “totally f-cked us” by staying in the race as long as he did and called Kamala Harris’ abridged run “a f-cking nightmare.”
While Plouffe said he was fielding calls from concerned donors who questioned Biden’s energy, cognition, and ability to deliver a speech, an unnamed senior aide – who allegedly quit over Biden’s insistence on running again – said many in the West Wing were kept in the dark. “We attempted to shield him from his own staff so many people didn’t realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023,” the person told Thompson and Tapper.
Someone described as a “prominent Democratic strategist,” meanwhile, called Biden’s determination to seek re-election “an abomination” that cost his party the White House. “He stole an election from the Democratic party,” the person said. “He stole it from the American people.”
‘A True Outrage’
Megyn said the information in this book and others like it is important, but that doesn’t make the timing of the disclosures any less infuriating. “I am starting to turn my view on these leftist reporters who are suddenly doing these books because they actually do have good connections inside team Biden and we’re getting some very telling details. Why didn’t we know this in 2023,” she asked. “The extent of the fraud that was committed upon us by these absolute ne’er-do-wells remains shocking. We should not lose our ability to be shocked just because he lost. This is a true outrage.”
Sexton agreed. “I reject wholesale the narrative that they’re trying to pedal now, and I’m going to be very hard on this with anybody who comes forward and tries to act like they’re a truth teller,” he said. “I have the receipts, as the kids say, because everybody – everybody – knew that Joe Biden was in a state of cognitive decline from just watching him on television for years.”
In his view, the current wave of writing based on leaks from people who had knowledge of the situation and previously remained quiet represents “a circular firing squad within the Democrat Party” because things didn’t go their way.
“Here’s what really happened: They tried a con, and it didn’t work. If it had worked… [and] Joe Biden had managed to stay in and managed to win, they would be talking about what an incredible shift it is now that Kamala Harris is going to have to ascend… from vice president and take over for him. The plan, I think, was quite obvious all along.”
And it wasn’t just White House staffers and Democrat insiders. Sexton said the legacy media was complicit in the cover-up but overplayed its hand. “All these reporters knew. They are lying now because they have to figure out a way to regain some credibility and to regain some ground… because they made a mockery of their own audience,” he explained. “Look at someone like… Joe Scarborough. He said – I think it was in March of last year – that this was the sharpest version… of Joe Biden I’ve ever seen… These people are liars.”
Ultimately, Sexton said there will be “no credit for trying to rewrite history” as the left tries “to tear each other down and shift the blame.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Sexton by tuning in to episode 1,071 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.