- Published: 28 January 2026
- ISBN: 9781804958490
- Imprint: Penguin
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $24.99
Original Sin
President Biden's decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again
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- Published: 28 January 2026
- ISBN: 9781804958490
- Imprint: Penguin
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $24.99
Damning and well-documented.
TELEGRAPH
A scathing account of an elderly, egotistical president cocooned from reality seeking re-election in 2024 despite significant concerns about his declining health and cognitive abilities.
GUARDIAN
Tapper and Thompson's portrait of a decrepit American president is devastating... Original Sin succeeds because it has a strong thesis and an arresting narrative, delivered in made-for-TV episodes.
FINANCIAL TIMES
A fascinating insight... this book shines a blinding light on the extent to which Joe Biden was ageing rapidly, becoming tired and confused and patently unfit for a second term in office.
iNEWS
Explosive . . . Tapper and Thompson have done the [Democratic] party a favor. Some sort of reckoning is due for the disastrous missteps that that paved the way for Trump’s return.
MICHELLE GOLDBERG, co-author of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
[The] most significant book to date about Biden’s cognitive decline.
ATLANTIC
Superbly reported . . . Reads like a Shakespearean drama on steroids.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Original Sin is not really a 'campaign book'—its account of the 2024 election largely ends after Biden drops out—but its simple assessment of the race is more compelling than anything else I’ve read about it . . . Original Sin is rarely better than when Tapper and Thompson are writing—with extensive reporting and clear-eyed prose—about the disaster that Biden caused . . . Over the next year, dozens of books will appear that attempt to explain this election. It’s hard to imagine any doing better than that.
WASHINGTON POST
A damning, step-by-step account of how the people closest to a stubborn, ageing president enabled his quixotic resolve to run for a second term.
NEW YORKER
Original Sin is a comprehensively sourced autopsy of the agonised end to Biden’s 50-year career. It’s accusatory, indignant, righteous – and convincing.
NEW STATESMAN
An authoritative indictment of a denial-plagued presidential run . . . This tough yet fair account of an ageing president’s inauspicious reelection campaign makes a strong case that voters deserve to know more about their commander-in-chief’s health.
KIRKUS
It’s hard to think of a book which has shifted the political dial to this extent in recent years.
POLITICO
