Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson

(Note: Just doing the review without the bells and whistles for this one since it wasn’t originally on my review schedule)

There is no way to fully avoid politics when it comes to this book. I feel it is important I confess my own personal feelings while reviewing this book. The best way to do that is to quote W.C. Fields: “I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.” Great, now we are all on the same page. Let’s review this thing.

I tried to approach Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson with an eye for different viewpoints. How would I feel as a die hard Republican or a Democrat? What about an independent? Some things can be divorced from that. Tapper and Thompson can write well. This was a highly-polished and easy read from a prose perspective. The organization of the book is spotty at first. It felt like the authors had a lot of content that they wanted to get into the book. It leads to the first half feeling informative but badly organized and repetitive at times. The second half gets much more focused when Biden’s re-election bid goes off the rails. There are a few names who go on the record, but many, as you would expect, would not put their names to their comments. That said, the stories line up with many things anyone watching the news would see. There are a few new bombshells, but just barely enough to have enough content for the book. As for journalistic integrity, I know people think this is a disgusting money grab that should have been reported earlier. I’ll get back to that, but while you can call the authors many things, I don’t believe liar is one of them.

As for the content, I felt there was enough in here to tick off both sides. Yes, this is focused on the groupthink of the Biden administration and it heavily details those missteps. However, this is hardly a pro-Trump book. In fact, the authors assume Trump being a boorish liar as a fait accompli. There is no examination of Trump because the authors consider that case closed.

As for the left, this is not an indictment of the Democratic party as a whole. It is, however, a strong rebuke of the pols around Biden in his very small trusted circle. Specific people are painted as sycophants who wouldn’t tell Biden the truth and kept everyone else at arms length. Dem politicians are presented as well meaning but uninformed and erratic. Perhaps the only people who come out of this mostly unscathed are the Obamas.

I have two main criticisms of the book besides the haphazard first half. First, the authors never examine the media’s part in all of this other than a few throwaway lines. Specifically for Tapper, this is egregious. Authors are allowed to cover what they want and how they want. Yes, technically speaking, the media coverage doesn’t need to be part of the narrative. Tapper does appear in the story, but not as a main character or someone who has their motives questioned. However, the reality is that Tapper needed to at least acknowledge his coverage and examine what that means for this story even if just just did so in the prologue or an epilogue.

My other criticism is that the roles played by Jill and Hunter Biden are maddeningly unclear. The authors have a few short, throwaway comments about what people felt about their machinations. While the investigation of Biden’s advisors is somewhat comprehensive, the two people closest to Biden are left vague.

Let’s be honest, there are people who will never spend a dime on this book for various reasons. For those folks, you will probably be able to read the biggest bombshells in the news. If you are looking for a full take-down of the Democratic party or Biden himself, you will probably be disappointed as well. This book is mostly for people who want to read about the drama (yup, I am part of that group). Those people will feel mostly satisfied, but I also think those people will think there is another book to be written about this episode in political history. We might still be too close to see the forest for the trees.

(This book was provided as a review copy by Penguin Press.)