Cnn
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Some members of the cabinet of former president Joe Biden did not think he could be invoked to play at 2 am in an emergency by the last year of his presidency, according to a new book by Jake Tapper from CNN and Alex Thompson de CNN.
Several secretaries told the authors that the Biden’s inner circle had become so small in 2023 and 2024 that even the members of his cabinet were not included.
“Access fell considerably in 2024, and I did not interact with him as much,” said a secretary of the cabinet, who explained that instead of Briefing Biden, the secretary would inform other main aids of the White House, who then informed the president.
The cabinet member thought it was strange and wondered if it was a way to filter special information and direct Biden’s decision -making, according to the book.
“Yes, the president” makes decisions “, but if the inner circle shapes them in this way, is it really a decision? Do they lead it to something? ” The secretary of the cabinet wondered.
The new book, “Original Sin: President Biden of the decline, his concealment and his disastrous choice to run again”, is being released on May 20. The book documents how Biden, his closest aid and his family advanced with the former re -election president of former president 2024 despite the signs of his physical and mental decline.
The book is based on more than 200 interviews, mainly with democratic initiates, who occurred after the end of the 2024 elections.
Even before Biden’s disastrous debate in June 2024 which led to his decision to leave the race three weeks later, Tapper and Thompson wrote that Biden had shown signs of his decline that were still ignored or explained.
Tapper and Thompson write that Biden collaborators discussed privately if they should put it in a wheelchair for his second term and that Biden did not recognize the movie star George Clooney during a fundraising in June 2024.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Biden criticized the book, saying: “We continue to wait for everything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he could not do his job. In fact, proofs indicate the opposite – he was a very effective president. ”
The authors spoke to several secretaries of the Biden firm for the book, who explained how Biden’s long -standing aid had protected the president in 2023 and 2024 when his health was deteriorating.
Tapper and Thompson write that the aid of the White House which once had regular access to Biden would spend months without seeing it. During some meetings, others noticed that Biden “would sometimes be mumbled and would not make much sense”, according to the authors.
“I do not think it is dementia,” said a second secretary of the cabinet, according to the authors. “But the fact is that he is an old man. The president can give you four to six good hours a day. When he tired, Sloppy is not the right word, but his guard was broken.”
The second secretary of the cabinet said of the interior circle of Biden: “It is difficult for an advisor to be honest with the director. If he had asked me, I would have said to him:” Make an end and you finished to preserve your inheritance “.”
A third secretary of the cabinet declared to Tapper and Thompson that the best assistants of Biden “had protected him at each meeting”. From October 2023, “the cabinet was kept remotely,” said the secretary.
“For months, we did not have access to him. There was clearly a deliberate strategy of the White House to make him meet as few people as necessary,” the third secretary of the cabinet told the authors.
“During a rare meeting during this period”, the authors write that the third secretary “was shocked by the way the president acted. He seemed “disoriented” and “out of him”, his mouth agape “.
The secretary said that Biden’s staff always wanted to keep him happy and protect him from bad news. This was also true when the “bad news concerned the president himself, on his deterioration”, write the authors.
“The staff hurt him,” said the cabinet member. “If you were with him every day and knew it was a problem, why didn’t you go to him and said something?”
