Was It Really a “Cover-Up” If We All Knew the Truth About Biden?

Tapper and Thompson make it clear that several key people in Biden’s orbit understood that his health was declining and chose to do nothing. Others, including Biden and his family—and likely many others working closely with him—appeared to be in deep denial of what was obviously true: He was unwell. We now know that Biden was likely suffering from cancer during the end of his presidency, after he revealed Sunday that he has been diagnosed with an advanced form of prostate cancer. Political aides are not oncologists, of course, but Original Sin provides countless examples of the president displaying evidence of physical and cognitive decline, which was then ignored, excused, or denied by aides, family members, and other close allies.

So it’s understandable that the notion of a cover-up has taken hold: It’s a succinct, accurate way to describe what happened. Republicans are pouncing on the book’s revelations to accuse the Democrats of putting the country in danger by allowing a mentally diminished president to remain in office. Meanwhile, Democrats are saying the book proves that Biden never should have run for reelection, which would have given the party a proper primary season to pick the best candidate to defeat Trump.

But for many, both in politics and in the press, the notion of a cover-up is also appealing because it lets them off the hook. After all, Biden’s decline was evident to anyone who watched him walk or speak throughout his presidency; not even the CIA could have covered it up. And the public, who had seen a fitter Biden during the Obama presidency, certainly wasn’t in the dark about it. Opinion surveys from 2021 onward showed that a growing majority of voters understood that the president was aging, that he was declining, and that he was not fit to serve two terms as president. And that points to a more troubling conclusion: Many Democrats outside the White House and many in the media either failed to recognize what was obviously happening or failed to treat it with the seriousness it deserved.