No one is being punished for the original sin of Democrats

Earlier this month, an advisor to Democratic donors sent me a text message to ask if I had a copy of the “original sin”, Jake Tapper’s book by CNN and Alex Thompson by Alex Thompson, “Decline, his disastrous choice of Alex Thompson, in the words of the book subtitle.

I told him that he still didn’t have one.

“I want to know if there is someone else with what we should be angry,” the advisor, who requested anonymity to preserve relationships, replied text messages.

Even before the arrival of “original sin”, most of the main Democrats had landed in a quartet of Biden advisors as clear villains in the history of Biden’s physical, mental and political decline: the first lady Jill Biden; Anthony Bernal, one of his main assistants who apparently managed to accumulate power through loyalty, gossip and fashion advice; The strategist Mike Donilon; and the lobbyist turned into Steve Ricchetti accumulator.

Biden and those four, the internal narrative of the Democratic Party, created an atmosphere of the White House where the bad news were turned off before it could reach the director’s ears, allowing a decision of the automatic pilot to direct a president of aging and unpopular for re -election without a backing plan if things went wrong.

The result? A revitalized Donald Trump who threatens the United States with the initial offer of Biden for the presidency was built around the detainees, and a Democratic party left contributing and aimlessly.

All previous advisors are so closely linked to Biden, whose unpopularity has already made almost a non -pleasant personality when it comes to the future of the Democratic Party, that there are few doubts that they will also face a form of political exile. The question that the Democrats now face is simple: who needs to say 50 farms as penance? Did anyone more commit a mortal sin that deserves exile?

A week after the launch of the book, the party seems to have made its decision: not really. The party leaders and the possible 2028 candidates are happy to say that Biden should not have run again, but they seem reluctant to draw more conclusions about what it means to the decision -making process of the party or who should play a role in the configuration of their future.

Until now, the number of Democrats who publicly call the senior additional officials is small. The Megadonor John Morgan, not known for his shyness, suggested that Biden officials should be “disqualified” of a future in the party. The former mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, who is now running for Governor of California, demanded that both the former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, and former vice president Kamala Harris, are sincere with the voters about what they knew about the condition of Biden. (Harris is a potential candidate for the governor, and Becerra, as Villaraigosa, has already announced an offer).

“People throughout the president were intentionally complicit, or they were told directly in a systematic cover -up to maintain Joe Biden’s mental decline of the public,” Villaraigosa told News themezone, noting that the book says specifically biden once mixed with another Latin member of the cabinet. “We have come to know that this cover -up included two prominent politicians from California. What did they know? When did they know? Why didn’t they say anything?”

Harris did not respond to a request for comments. Becerra, in a statement, simply said that “he met with President Biden when it was necessary to make important decisions and execute with my team in the HHS.”

“It is clear that the president was aging, but made clear the mission: directing the world’s largest health agency, expanding the attention to millions of Americans more than ever, negotiating the cost of prescription medications and getting us out of a worldwide pandemic,” Becerra said. “And we give ourselves.”

Spencer Platt through Getty Images

Those looking for new villains in the pages of “original sin” could not find what they are looking for. The book does not necessarily accuse specific acts: if the actions described count as a cover -up, there is no crushing of confidential documents or bribed witnesses. Instead, it accuses a style of governance in which a small number of nearby advisors influences the disproportionate and prevents the information from reaching the president’s ears while insisting on the reality of a completely functional president who does not coincide with the evidence, one that would be scandalous even if Joe Biden was gaining episodes of “Bopardia!”

The most obvious consequence of this, in the book, is the repeated belief of Biden in the surveys that indicate that he was winning the 2024 elections against the now president Trump. Again and again, Biden tries to reassure the interlocutors telling them that the surveys show that he (already only he) is defeating Trump. This, to put it lightly, was not really the state of the surveys at the end of 2023 and early 2024.

An example: on July 3, 2024, Democratic governors from all over the country flew to Washington to meet with Biden after their debate disaster. During the meeting, the president insisted that the surveys showed him as the best positioned candidate to defeat Trump (they did not) and that the voters worried more about saving democracy than for the health of Biden (they also did not do so).

The governor of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, when leaving the meeting, faced Ricchetti about the discrepancy between Biden’s trust and the surveys that the governors were seeing, which showed Trump gaining land in blue states such as New Mexico and Maine.

“The president’s reference surveys where he leads,” Healey told Ricchetti. “What surveys are referring to? Because they are different from the surveys that governors are seeing in our states.”

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” Ricchetti replied. “I know surveys.”

A Biden spokesman did not approach how the White House worked during the Biden Administration, but also issued a statement that reiterated the former president’s ability: “There is nothing in this book that shows that Joe Biden failed to do his job, since the authors have moved away, nor did they show that there was a cover -up or conspiracy. In fact, Joe Biden was an effective president who directed our country with empathy ability “.

The other guilty are equally apologies. In an appearance in February in Harvard, Donilon blamed the party for leaving Biden after what he insisted on a single performance of poor debate.

“He was writing like this fact, ‘Oh, Biden had mental disabilities,” he said. “I don’t know how long one of those people spent with him, I know how long I spent. I know what I saw.”

“The book does not necessarily accuse specific acts … on the other hand, it accuses a style of government in which a small number of nearby advisors maintains disproportionate influence and prevents information from reaching the president’s ears.”

Tapper and Thompson’s Prodigious Reporting, interviewed more than 200 people, most of them after the 2024 elections, appoint and at least try to embarrass many other biden loyal ones, particularly those who led the position in the fight against journalists and others who questioned the vitality of Biden.

But other high profile figures in the orbit of Biden escape mainly from direct guilt. Jeff Zients, the second Chief of Biden Cabinet, often seems like a background character, which guarantees only 31 mentions in the 332 pages of the book. Other key players, such as the first Chief of Biden Cabinet, Ron Klain, leave the White House after half of the exams and are not present when Biden’s decline accelerates.

Anita Dunn, the White House communications guru, can be the source biden with the most theoretically losing. She played a key role in the blessing and the future of the future, the Super PAC that raised $ 560 million to support Biden and then Harris in the 2024 elections. It is not clear if Future Forward will continue to be the main democratic super pac in the future, and a broader reaction of Biden World could turn off their hopes. Dunn is mentioned only 27 times. (For the good of the comparison, Donilon guarantees 80 mentions and Ricchetti 59)

Some Democratic donors told me that they are dedicating additional skepticism to the releases of agents linked to Biden, but there seems to be little desire for a calculation of the entire party. When I asked Villaraigosa, for example, if I would no longer consider hiring former Biden agents in his campaign, he turned and kept the focus on officials of greater rank.

“I just know what I read,” he said. “The book focuses mainly on its advisory clique, the cabinet and the vice president.”

Other democratic elites consider the book little more than a distraction driven by an exaggerated machine that invariably revolves behind a book co -written by one of the highest profile anchors of CNN, and would prefer that the party drives forward and concentrates in counteracting the decision of authoritarianism Biden that finally enables. Others recognize the problem but have simply passed to worrying about podcasts. A handful still has the head in the sand.

“I think that one of the reasons why the numbers of the Democratic Party are still so low is that they have not considered the lies they told about this,” Tapper said. “These are not lies about tariffs. These are not lies about economic policy or things that I do not completely understand as the average voter. These are lies about the things we all understand perfectly: aging, colds, accumulated, not being the best possible. These are things to which we all have access.”

Very few party agents seem to agree. Most believe that these questions about Biden’s aptitude for office will not pursue the party for a long time, which will allow political return for those near Biden and allow the party as a whole to overcome the recent displeasure.

“It is much more important for the 2028 Democratic presidential candidate to answer difficult questions about the immigration policy of Joe Biden than to answer difficult questions about their age,” said an advisor to a possible presidential candidate, requesting anonymity to preach the future.