White House tried to block reporting on Biden’s decline, new book reveals

Former President Joe Biden’s deputy chief of staff allegedly used aggressive tactics with a reporter trying to cover his mental and physical decline, according to a new book.

“Original Sin,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, reported that “weeks” before the explosive Wall Street Journal story detailing concern about Biden’s decline came out in June, Steve Ricchetti, former White House deputy chief of staff, strongly denied claims that the president was slipping to another journalist. 

“[A] reporter with a different national news outlet had been hearing from White House aides that behind the scenes the president was having serious and disturbing moments, forgetting names and facts, sometimes seeming seriously confused at meetings,” the book read.

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“The reporter reached out to members of the White House press office, which not only aggressively—and angrily—disputed her reporting but also took the unusual step of having Steve Ricchetti call her,” the book said. “He talked to her off the record, so she couldn’t use any of what he said or even attribute it to ‘a White House source.’ But he told her that everything the others were saying was false, and that he was at the meetings as a counselor to the president.”

According to Tapper and Thompson, the Biden White House was going all out trying to control the perception of his health.

“The message from the White House was clear, this reporter believed: If she went forward with the story from anonymous aides, the White House would aggressively dispute it, on the record, and portray her as a liar,” the book reads. “The tacit threat worked.”

The White House also reportedly asked Democrats interviewed by the Wall Street Journal for the report on Biden’s mental acuity to call the outlet back and push back on “false” accounts, with one congressman reportedly defending the president’s sharpness, while admitting to a reporter he was told to call back.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and other members of the cabinet bashed the Wall Street Journal article, telling Fox News Digital, “The article was BS.”

“The president is utterly on his game,” she added. “He is the wisest, most knowledgeable person in the room. He asks the toughest questions and has the keenest insights on the complex questions brought to him. He is sharp, thoughtful and wise.”

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Other outlets felt the wrath of the Biden administration when trying to report the story that was obvious to the rest of the country.

The Biden White House let the New York Times know it was “extremely upset” about its coverage of Biden’s age, according to the paper’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger in February 2024.

“I think the Biden team made it really hard to ask questions about his health — they shamed you, said you didn’t like him, etc.,” former CNN journalist Chris Cillizza admitted to Fox News Digital, noting that many reporters, including himself, “Let that be that.”

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Thompson told the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, “President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Biden for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.