CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday revealed new particulars from his upcoming ebook on Joe Biden’s reported well being decline, together with {that a} member of Biden’s administration was as soon as left “shocked” by his habits within the White House.
Tapper — whereas previewing “Original Sin,” co-authored by Axios’ Alex Thompson, on CNN’s “The Lead” — referred to an unnamed Cabinet secretary who recalled Biden being seemingly “disoriented” and “out of it” in a “rare meeting” throughout his presidency.
“The staff did him wrong,” recalled the previous Biden administration official, per Tapper. “If you were with him every day and you knew this was a problem, why didn’t you go to him and say something?”
A special Cabinet secretary famous that they didn’t assume the president had “dementia” however acknowledged that he was “an old man,” in line with Tapper.
“The president can give you four to six good hours a day,” they mentioned of Biden.
“When he got tired, sloppy isn’t the right word, but his guard was down.”
By final 12 months, Tapper famous that Biden officers believed they couldn’t rely on him to carry out presidential duties across the clock, resembling if an emergency got here up at 2 a.m..
The CNN host reported that Biden’s cupboard secretaries — alongside together with his aides — “didn’t have access” to or didn’t see the previous president “for months” at a time starting in 2023.
“Others told us that in some meetings, Biden would mumble incoherently, something the public only got glimpses of,” continued Tapper earlier than displaying a clip of Biden doing simply that in January 2024.
A Biden spokesperson, in a press release on Tapper and Thompson’s reporting, mentioned that the previous president’s group continues to “await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job.”
The assertion continued, “In fact, the evidence points to the opposite. He was a very effective president.”
The ebook — which accuses the Biden White House of overlaying up his situation earlier than he dropped his reelection bid final 12 months — reportedly explores how Biden as soon as confused at the very least two of his officers and, at a June 2024 fundraiser, the previous president failed to acknowledge his pal George Clooney.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cnn-jake-tapper-book-biden-official-disoriented-meeting_n_68251e84e4b0a84e35c735ec