A bombshell new book detailing the Biden White House’s attempts to conceal the then-president’s deteriorating mental state included some revelations about some of Pennsylvania’s top pols.
A new book examining President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection despite American voters’ overwhelming belief that he was too old to serve a second term also sheds light on how Biden’s infirmities divided Pennsylvania Democrats between those loyal to “Scranton Joe” and others desperate to elevate someone else to take on Donald Trump.
The book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, reveals the extent Biden’s family and top aides went to reportedly conceal Biden’s health issues. Biden’s fateful decision to ignore his pledge to be a “bridge” and instead attempt to serve as president until he was 86 was not uniformly well-received by Keystone State Democrats.
One Pennsylvania Democrat who tried to give the White House a cold dose of reality in the dying days of the Biden campaign was Gov. Josh Shapiro. Shapiro told the president in no uncertain terms that his reelection campaign was in deep trouble in the Keystone State.
“So how do you think it’s going out there?” Biden asked Shapiro during a private chat following a series of campaign events in Philadelphia and Harrisburg on July 7, 2024, weeks after his disastrous performance in the June presidential debate. “I’ll be honest, Mr. President, I have some concerns,” the governor replied, according to the book. Shapiro informed the president that his support base in the largest and most important swing state was rapidly evaporating.
The first-term governor also criticized the campaign’s messaging on inflation and emphasized to Biden the importance of proving his debate performance was a one-off mistake. Before Biden could respond to Shapiro’s criticism in detail, the conversation’s third participant – First Lady Jill Biden – cut off discussion and escorted her husband out of the room.
After the July encounter, Shapiro reportedly thought the Bidens “didn’t want to hear the facts on the ground,” according to Thompson and Tapper’s reporting. While Shapiro was thought to be eyeing the White House himself, he would quickly back Vice President Kamala Harris within hours of Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
In a call with the moderate New Democrats, suburban Philadelphia Rep. Chrissy Houlahan practically begged the president to understand the political reality Keystone State Democrats were seeing. “Please, sir,” Houlan implored Biden, “have a look at the Pennsylvania polls.”
Another Biden critic behind the scenes was Lehigh Valley Congresswoman Susan Wild. On a call with House Democratic leadership to discuss Biden’s dismal post-debate polling, she was blunt about the threat Biden’s infirmity posed to her reelection.
Biden “needs to come to my district,” Wild said, referring to the Lehigh Valley’s status as one of the swingiest regions of the Keystone State. “But I have to tell you, I’m not going to be able to show up with him. I cannot campaign with Joe Biden. If I defend the president, I lose my integrity.”
Underscoring the danger Democratic gaslighting about Biden’s health posed to swing-district representatives, Wild concluded, “How do we go after Trump for lying if people see us as liars?”
“I’m the only face on this Zoom that stands to be harmed by leaking from this meeting,” Wild told her colleagues, adding, “So can I please beg people to keep this as a confidential meeting?” Wild’s comments were subsequently leaked to Tapper and Thompson.
In contrast to Shapiro, Houlahan, and Wild, Philadelphia Democrat Brendan Boyle defended Biden on the call, saying “I was just with the president a little while ago…he seemed in pretty good spirits. I’m sticking with him.” Boyle Continued, “I understand that people have made good arguments on both sides. I think that, ultimately, this is a decision he’s going to make—he has won the Democratic nomination.”
Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey is identified by the authors as a vulnerable senator who feared being weighed down by Biden in the fall, along with Montana’s Jon Tester, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and Nevada’s Jacky Rosen. Of the four Senate Democrats named by the author, only Rosen would go on to win reelection.
Senate Democrats’ reluctance to stand with Biden after the debate infuriated John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s other senator. After polling the room and finding just 5 of 51 Senate Democrats backed Biden, Fetterman exploded with rage at his colleagues.
“So, if you’re willing to f**k over the president, who’s been a great president after everything—and I’d like to remind every last one of you he is the only person who has ever beat Trump in an election,” Fetterman said, according to Tapper and Thompson’s reporting.
“I mean, we all understand he had a bad debate, but if debates were definitive, I wouldn’t be here talking to you here today. I understand there were probably some really scary conversations after I had my bad debate—and my debate was much worse,” said Fetterman, referencing his 2022 debate with Dr. Mehmet Oz weeks after suffering a major stroke.
Fetterman concluded by saying he was “tired of hearing about Joe Biden’s legacy. You all have legacies too. And your legacy is going to be f**king over a great president after a bad debate. And if you go ahead and set this in motion, you better own that.” Within weeks of Fetterman’s lecture to his colleagues, Biden would withdraw from the race.
