CNNâs Van Jones warned Sunday that Democrats will suffer long-term political consequences for covering up President Joe Bidenâs physical and mental decline.
Bidenâs decline and its cover-up have been major news topics ahead of the release of a book on the subject titled âOriginal Sinâ by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson. When Tapper asked on âState of the Unionâ how Jones felt after reading an advance copy of the book, Jones attacked those who were aware of the extent of Bidenâs decline but did not speak up about the presidentâs diminishing capabilities.
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âThis book is extraordinary. I donât care who you are, left, right or otherwise. Anybody who cares about this country and about just the dynamics of power, this is âThe Emperorâs New Clothesâ playing itself out in real time,â Jones said. âEverybody knew, but everyone was afraid to say â except for David Axelrod â for two years, that something was wrong here. And so, you know, I was shocked. I love Joe Biden. I donât like him, I love him. I got a chance to work with him when I was a part of the Obama administration and loved him more every day. â
âI was shocked to see his condition when he came out . And so was the world. And that wasnât the first time he was in that condition,â he continued. âThe book makes it very very clear, there are people who knew and said nothing. And that is a crime against this republic. And I think the Democrats are going to pay for a long time for being a part of what is now being revealed to be a massive cover-up.â
Certain Biden cabinet officials felt the former president would not be dependable at 2 a.m. in an emergency situation by the last year of his term, CNN reported, based on âOriginal Sin.â Bidenâs aides also privately discussed the possibility of the president requiring a wheelchair in a possible second term due to his deteriorating physical health, according to the book.
Furthermore, Biden could not consistently remember the names of aides and lawmakers by the end of 2022, the New York Post reported, based on the forthcoming Tapper-Thompson book. âOriginal Sinâ also reports that cabinet secretaries believe they were purposely kept away from Biden by his inner circle as part of a wider effort to hide his decline from other Democrats and the broader public.
While Jones said he believed nearly everyone was stunned by Bidenâs disastrous debate performance, political analyst Mark Halperin has suggested that it should not have been surprising, given that the former presidentâs decline was clear beforehand judging by both his public appearances and the lack thereof. For instance, he frequently points to a September 2022 event during which Biden publicly appeared to call on the late Republican Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski, apparently forgetting that she died in a car crash one month earlier.
Democrats, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have recently struggled to answer questions about Bidenâs evident mental acuity issues. Many 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls are also aiming to distance themselves from comments they made in 2024 in which they minimized concerns about Bidenâs decline.
Moreover, former Vice President Kamala Harris still denied Biden exhibited any cognitive decline even after she took his place atop the Democratic presidential ticket in July. While many Democrats may have been shocked by the extent of Bidenâs decline, approximately 75% of voters believed Biden was too elderly for a second term as early as September 2023, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.
Tapper himself has also received criticism for writing âOriginal Sinâ after his coverage of Bidenâs decline prior to the debate, which critics charge was too charitable to the Biden White Houseâs spin.
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