Book Exposes the Biden Family: Denial, Damage Control, and Delusions of Power

A blistering new political tell-all is pulling back the curtain on what authors call the Biden family’s carefully manufactured reality—one built on denial, deception, and a stubborn refusal to face the truth.

The upcoming book Original Sin, co-authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, reveals how Joe Biden and those closest to him created a parallel universe to preserve his image—and how that fantasy spiraled into a full-blown crisis by the time of his failed 2024 re-election bid.

Laptop Denial and Political Panic

At the center of the storm is Hunter Biden’s now-infamous abandoned laptop. While the president and his son were publicly dismissing the hard drive as Russian disinformation in early 2022, Biden campaign operatives were privately panicking. According to Original Sin, aides quietly obtained a copy of the laptop’s contents through the Democratic National Committee and spent months digging through its damaging material.

“The campaign needed to be politically prepared,” the authors write. “And Biden needed to be personally prepared.”

The laptop, stuffed with videos of Hunter’s drug use, sexual encounters, and incriminating financial records, became a ticking time bomb. So the Biden team did what they do best: they created a secretive opposition-style file—on their own candidate.

Aide: ‘Hunter Thought It Would Help’

Despite the chaos he caused, Hunter reportedly believed the growing Republican-led investigations into the Biden family would somehow work in his favor.

“He thought it would be his chance to fight back, to rewrite the story,” one aide told the authors. “He was in denial about the damage he’d done.”

According to Original Sin, Hunter downplayed everything—his business ties to foreign nationals, his abandonment of a child he initially denied, and the pornographic footage found on his laptop. In his mind, it was all behind him. He was sober, in a new relationship, and ready to return to public life.

But not everyone was on board with that plan.

Clash Over Memoir and the Church Tour That Never Happened

Biden’s advisers were reportedly blindsided by Hunter’s 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, which painted a rosy picture of his chaotic past and was seen by insiders as a tone-deaf attempt to rebrand himself. Things came to a head when Hunter floated a book tour through South Carolina—featuring visits to historic Black churches to discuss his crack addiction.

“Advisers were horrified,” said a campaign source. “They warned it would be a circus and an insult to voters. Eventually, Hunter backed off.”

Behind the scenes, aides tiptoed around the president’s son, whom they viewed as meddling and delusional. According to the book, Hunter frequently tried to override his father’s seasoned advisers, telling the president which staffers were “useless” and pushing political strategies that insiders viewed as reckless.

The Biden Doctrine: Deny Reality, Repeat the Narrative

But the real focus of Original Sin is Joe Biden himself—how he built a personal mythology that his family and allies embraced like gospel. From his insistence that his late son Beau would survive cancer, to downplaying Hunter’s addictions, to pretending his own health was stable, Biden clung to a narrative of resilience and truth-telling.

“The Bidens’ greatest strength is living in their own reality,” one longtime family associate told the authors. “And Joe is the high priest of that reality.”

In a devastating passage, the authors write that this delusion “became almost theological—a near-religious belief in Biden’s ability to recover, no matter the odds. His aviators, his Corvette, the ice cream cones—none of it was accidental. It was the costume for a role he never stopped playing.”

The Real ‘Original Sin’

The book’s title refers to what Tapper and Thompson call the most damaging decision of Biden’s political life: his choice to run for re-election in 2024, even as signs of his physical and cognitive decline became impossible to ignore.

His wife, First Lady Jill Biden, and senior advisers reportedly circled the wagons to shield him from scrutiny—both from the public and from within the party.

“They convinced themselves he could still win,” a former campaign staffer told the authors. “But deep down, everyone knew the truth.”

Following his crushing loss to Donald Trump, Democratic leaders are already using the book’s revelations to distance themselves from Biden and shift blame onto him for the party’s defeat.

Timing or Coincidence?

Just hours before the book’s release, Biden’s office quietly announced that the former president has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The news sent shockwaves through political circles and immediately drew sympathy—but critics argue it also conveniently blunts the impact of Original Sin.

“Everything about this feels calculated,” said a former DNC strategist. “They’re trying to control the damage, even now.”

What Comes Next?

The Biden family’s retreat into fantasy may have worked for decades. But Original Sin shows that the cost of living in a bubble finally caught up to them—with historic political consequences.

As Republicans gear up to take aim at what they now call the “Biden Cover-Up Machine,” one thing is clear: the Bidens’ greatest strength—their ability to believe their own story—may have been their ultimate undoing.