When does the promotional tour for a book turn into a potential public-relations headache? That’s the question raised by the blowback to “Original Sin,” the behind-the-scenes look at Joe Biden’s age-related infirmities, amid a campaign by its authors, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which has extensively leveraged the former’s role as an anchor at CNN.
Earlier this week Tapper and CNN were mocked by Jon Stewart on Monday’s “The Daily Show” for the manner in which the anchor and network have been promoting the book, both in its tone and volume. Undaunted, Tapper devoted the first half of his hour-long program to “Original Sin” the next day.
Tapper kicked off his show Wednesday with two major breaking-news stories: President Trump’s tense meeting with the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and ongoing tax-bill negotiations. At the halfway point, though, he again returned to “Original Sin” in an interview with Illinois Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, who Tapper called a “key character” in the book.
The promotional blitz has extended to Megyn Kelly’s show and rival MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where co-host Mika Brzezinski challenged Tapper and Axios’ Thompson on Wednesday regarding the book’s subtitle, “President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”
“I want to understand why you’re using words like ‘cover-up,’” Brzezinski asked, noting that it insinuates some kind of crime, while adding that Tapper is giving “hours and hours” to the book at a moment when the Trump administration is “pushing the limits of the law in every way.”
Weighing in on X, journalism professor and critic Jeff Jarvis said the book embodied “everything wrong with political journalism,” adding that Tapper and Thompson are engaging in “exploitative, sensationalistic, irresponsible, conspiratorial Biden-bashing to sell their damned book when the real story is fascism upon us.”
Others have echoed that theme. Sirius XM host Dean Obeidallah accused CNN of becoming “an infomercial” for the book, tweeting, “Every single segment on cable news about Jake Tapper’s book talking Biden is one less covering Trump’s corruption, his war on our Constitution and his crimes!” Similarly, author-journalist Steven Beschloss posted that Tapper is “wasting precious time and aiding a fascist regime.”
CNN declined to comment about the amount of coverage the network has devoted to the book, referring any additional questions to the publisher, Penguin Press. Tapper hasn’t responded to a request for comment through Penguin.
Although Tapper has been the most public face in terms of promoting “Original Sin,” Thompson started his campaign early, plugging the upcoming release while accepting an award — and chiding the media — at the White House Correspondents Association dinner in April.
As the release has neared, Tapper has featured excerpts from the book on a daily basis, while other CNN anchors and reporters have frequently referenced it, in what amounts to free advertising.
As Stewart did, others have questioned the breathless way revelations in the book have been presented given that Biden’s decline was a frequent topic of discussion at the time and in some ways plainly visible even before the disastrous presidential debate that prompted him to withdraw from the race.
Writing in The Atlantic, Mark Leibovich said, “You know what else is old? The story about Biden being old,” in an article headlined, “Biden’s Age Wasn’t a Cover-Up. It Was Observable Fact.”
Tapper and Thompson have maintained that the extent of Biden’s decline remained unknown, and that many of their sources were only willing to discuss the topic after the election — and even then, often only on the condition of anonymity.
Although the revelations in the book have been embraced by conservative commentators, many, such as Kelly, have used the occasion to try taking Tapper and the mainstream media to task for not covering the story more aggressively when Biden was in office.
“You didn’t cover mental acuity hardly at all,” Kelly told Tapper, adding, “You seemed to be running cover for the president,” a contention that Tapper denied.
Oliver Darcy, who writes the Status newsletter, called the duo’s decision to sit for an interview with Kelly “baffling,” given how she was sure to spin the book’s content. In some ways, the appearance reflects the extent to which Tapper has reached beyond CNN while still utilizing his daily platform as host of “The Lead.”
Not all high-profile media members are groaning about the book tour and the co-authors. Piers Morgan, during an interview with TheWrap on Wednesday, complimented Tapper and Thompson, saying both have been “quite honest about their failings” in covering Biden’s cognitive decline during his time in the White House.
“It will go down in history as a very important book, because it recounts in pretty shocking detail the full scale of not just Biden’s cognitive and physical issues, which were, in my view, disqualifying for President of the United States, but also the general cover-up at the White House and by all the celebrity supporters,” Morgan said.
Morgan also did not have an issue with Tapper promoting the book on his own network and elsewhere, saying he believes Tapper when he says now that he did not know the full extent of Biden’s health issues until after he left office, and that it was “hidden from people” in the media.
In a review for Columbia Journalism Review, veteran media executive Richard Tofel criticized the press collectively for its failures in reporting on Biden, while noting that “Original Sin” offers a chronological timeline but “not much of a coherent story.” He added that the authors leave “important gaps” and seem “unable to settle on clear answers to some key questions.”
The promotional tour has also been complicated by Biden’s announced diagnosis with an aggressive form of cancer, which has forced even Biden critics to perfunctorily wish for his recovery before wading into the book’s details.
In terms of the timing, Stewart joked of CNN’s dilemma, “How do you pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor’s book, to somberly, and respectfully, promoting your anchor’s book?”
Editor’s note: Lowry is a former CNN employee.
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