Former President Joe Biden reportedly forgot that longtime Senate colleague Bob Dole had died and, on another occasion, appeared to believe his late son Beau was still alive, according to an updated edition of Original Sin, the book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson detailing Biden’s decline.
Biden reportedly forgot Dole’s death despite delivering “a nationally televised, roughly eighteen-minute eulogy for him at the Washington National Cathedral in December 2021.”
“On another occasion, Biden seemed to think his son Beau, who died in 2015, was still alive and fighting cancer,” the authors write.
The updated edition includes new reporting that was not included in the book’s original May 2025 release.
A spokesman for Biden pushed back on the account involving Beau.
“There has not been a single day since May 30, 2015 when President Biden has not felt the pain of losing his son Beau to cancer, and for anyone to suggest otherwise, much less profit off that lie, speaks volumes about the character and credibility of the authors.”
Thompson responded: “Read the book, make up your own mind.”
Biden ended his 2024 reelection campaign after a disastrous debate against Donald Trump in which his answers were at times incoherent.
“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a statement announcing his withdrawal.
Tapper, who co-moderated the debate, has said he regrets not investigating Biden’s decline more aggressively.
“I can point to times where I asked him this or I asked them that … but knowing what I know now, I barely scratched the surface,” Tapper said. “I need to run more towards the discomfort of questions about health because they’re so important and they’re so under-covered in Washington.”
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