Claims have emerged from a bombshell book suggesting that Joe Biden’s administration overlooked the former president’s declining health, a notion fiercely opposed by Biden’s family.
The political powerhouses took a shocking turn against CNN’s Jake Tapper after he lifted the lid on Biden’s chaotic administration.
The book, Original Sin, written by Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, includes interviews with insiders who alleged they observed the president’s notable decrease in mental sharpness.
Among the testimonies, one source recounted a high-pressure cabinet meeting in 2023 where the 82-year-old president seemed confused and disconnected while his aides essentially controlled the situation.
Others said that from October 2023 onwards, people found it increasingly difficult to get in touch with Biden, as his administration heavily moderated when he could make appearances.
And another inside claimed the president couldn’t even recognize A-list star George Clooney when he said hello at a fundraiser that the actor himself was hosting.
Biden and his wife Jill have stood firm against the bombshell claims, with the ex-commander-in-chief firmly calling them “false” in a recent appearance on The View.
Most recently, his granddaughter Naomi Biden, who is Hunter Biden’s daughter, lashed out at the CNN star in a fiery statement where she slammed the book as “political fairy smut.”
In a post on X, the scion, who works as an attorney, said she read a copy of the “silly book” and was left infuriated after witnessing her grandfather’s presidency “firsthand.”
She said the tell-all was for the “permanent professional chattering class” who “rarely enter the arena, but profit from the spectacle of those that do.”
“Put simply, it amounts to a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self promoting journalists out to make a quick buck,” she ripped into Tapper.
“It relies on unnamed, anonymous sources pushing a self-serving false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare.”
Naomi fumed over the treatment of her grandfather, whom she described as “completely good and honest.”
“There are real stories to be told and one day they will be,” she ended the outraged post.
“I suspect history will reward the truth.”
BIDEN’S HEALTH
Claims about Biden’s declining health rang out just as the former president was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
He revealed his grim condition on Sunday, and was met with resounding well-wishes from supporters and rival Donald Trump.
Trump wrote, “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis.
“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
The health battle has brought a wave of criticism toward Biden’s White House physician, Kevin O’Connor, who gave the former president a clean bill of health just months before the cancer diagnosis.
Now, O’Connor is facing mounting calls to testify under oath to explain his health screening of the president and why the condition was missed.
Trump, whose spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said has full trust in his own physicians, questioned O’Connor’s performance in a searing post.
“Somebody is going to have to speak to his doctor… I think the doctor said he was just fine,” he said on Monday.
“It takes a long time to get to that situation […] I’m surprised that it wasn’t, you know, the public wasn’t notified a long time ago because to get to stage nine, that’s a long time.”
How could prostate cancer be missed?
By Health Correspondent, Sam Blanchard
It is likely that Joe Biden’s cancer started while he was still serving as president – as recently as January – but impossible to know how long he has had it.
Prostate cancer is widely regarded as the slowest growing form of cancer because it can take years for any sign of it to appear and many men never need treatment.
The former president’s office said his cancer is aggressive and has spread to his bones, further confusing the timeline.
PSA blood tests could indicate whether a patient is likely to have cancer but they become less accurate with age, and gold-standard tests involve taking biopsy tissue samples.
There is no guarantee that Mr Biden, 82, was tested during his presidency and, even if he was, the cancer is not certain to have been detected. It may have first formed a long time ago and only recently become aggressive, or started recently and grown very quickly.
Most cancers are found before they spread but a fast-growing one may be harder to catch in time.
Prostate cancers are well-known for not causing many symptoms in the early stages and the NHS says “there may be no signs for many years”.
The time it takes for a cancer to progress to stage four – known as metastatic, when it has spread to another body part – can vary from a number of months to many years.
Professor Suneil Jain, from Queen’s University Belfast, said: “Every prostate cancer is different and no-one from outside his direct team will have all the information to be specific about President Biden’s specific diagnosis or situation.
“In recent years there has been a lot of progress in the management of prostate cancer, with many new therapies becoming available.
“This has significantly extended the average life expectancy by a number of years.”
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in males and one in eight men develop it at some stage in their life.
