Former President Joe Biden’s advisers privately discussed Biden using a wheelchair if he won reelection in 2024.
According to the book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, scheduled for release on May 20, advisers were fully aware by 2023 of Biden’s deteriorating health, which was even worse than believed by outsiders. Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, reportedly suggested he use a wheelchair if conditions worsen, something Biden’s advisers believed would be political suicide if done before the election.
“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,” the authors wrote, according to an excerpt obtained by Axios.
“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,” they wrote.
The book is based on interviews with over 200 people, mainly Democratic insiders with knowledge of events. Nearly all took place after the 2024 election.
The book also alleged that Biden aides lied about the reason for the president’s awkward gait when they claimed throughout 2024 it was a result of him fracturing his foot in November 2020 and refusing to wear his walking boot past a certain point. The claim contradicted O’Connor’s assessment in 2021 that “both small fractures of his foot are completely healed” and that “this injury has healed as expected.”
The primary reason for Biden’s labored stride was “significant spinal arthritis,” a problem that led to aides changing his schedule.
The book revealed that Biden’s infamous fall in June 2023 at the Air Force Academy, a fall mocked by President Donald Trump and his allies, was more severe than previously thought.
The authors wrote that Biden’s aides constantly argued with O’Connor, who was demanding more time for Biden to rest. He often quipped that the then-president’s aides were trying to kill him.
On physical deterioration, a Biden spokesperson who declined to be identified told Axios in a statement that Biden didn’t require any special treatment for his gait and that it hadn’t worsened.
“He was transparent about this, and it was far from ‘severe,’” according to the statement. “Yes, there were physical changes as he got older, but evidence of aging is not evidence of mental incapacity.”
“And so far,” it continued, “we are still waiting for someone, anyone, to point out where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or make a presidential address where he was unable to do his job because of mental decline. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite — he was a very effective president.”
However, other sections of the book allege that severe mental decline had been observed by aides since at least 2022. One senior aide who quit the White House over the belief that Biden shouldn’t run for reelection told Tapper and Thompson, “We attempted to shield him from his own staff, so many people didn’t realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023,” according to the Guardian.
“I love Joe Biden. When it comes to decency, there are few in politics like him. Still, it was a disservice to the country and to the party for his family and advisers to allow him to run again,” the aide added.
Other Democrats were less charitable.
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“It was an abomination. He stole an election from the Democratic Party; he stole it from the American people,” a prominent Democratic strategist said of the former president’s drive to seek reelection.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was also heavily critical of Biden, warning him in a July visit to his Delaware home that if he lost to Trump, 50 years of “amazing, beautiful work goes out the window. But it’s worse than that — you will go down in American history as one of the darkest figures.”
