A claim has emerged that former President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race during last year's U.S. presidential election due to health concerns, did not recognize George Clooney, an acquaintance he has known for decades and a Hollywood actor. Additionally, it has been reported that former President Biden's team internally considered the possibility of using a wheelchair if he were to win re-election.
According to Axios, an American internet media outlet, on the 13th (local time), Axios' Alex Thompson and CNN's Jake Tapper, who reported on former President Biden, will release their new book 'Original Sin' on the 20th. They stated that the Biden family and his team justified their attempts to keep a confused elderly man in the White House for another four years due to their self-interest and fear of President Donald Trump's re-election.
This book is based on interviews with over 200 people who are knowledgeable about the last two years of former President Biden's four-year term. It particularly focuses on suspicions that they concealed former President Biden's health issues and decided to run for office again.
According to the book, former President Biden rapidly declined in health from 2023 to 2024. During this time, he experienced severe spinal degeneration, leading to instability in his walking. The president's doctor privately mentioned that considering the former president's age, "if another serious fall occurs, recovery might be difficult, and a wheelchair may be necessary."
In response, Biden's aides privately discussed the possibility of him needing to use a wheelchair if he succeeded in re-election. However, they decided not to use a wheelchair during the re-election campaign for political reasons.
The book claims that both former President Biden and his family, along with White House officials, continued the re-election campaign despite witnessing signs of his physical and mental decline. In response, the Biden team refuted this, saying, "It was confirmed during a medical examination that the stiffness in his walk was due to spinal wear, but no special treatment was needed," adding, "He (Biden) openly disclosed this issue, and it was absolutely not serious."
During his term, former President Biden was seen falling multiple times in public settings, raising health concerns. In 2023, he fell while attending a U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony after tripping over sandbags on the speech stage, and in 2021, he fell while climbing stairs to board the presidential plane.
The book also relayed that there were issues with former President Biden's cognitive abilities. During a fundraising event in mid-June last year, before he gave up on running for re-election, Biden failed to recognize George Clooney, with whom he had been acquainted for 15 years.
The authors claimed that before the fundraising event, Clooney greeted then-President Biden first, but former President Biden seemed not to recognize who he was. When aides reminded him, "Mr. President, do you know George?" Biden then acknowledged Clooney.
In fact, after the fundraising event, Clooney wrote a column for the New York Times in July last year, stating, "It's hard to say, but Joe Biden, who was present at the fundraising event three weeks ago, was not the 'great' Joe Biden of 2010," calling for the former President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.