Original Sin: The Five Communication Sins That Created the Biden Coverup

Last week, CNN anchor Jake Tapper faced the backlash he likely anticipated when promoting his new book, Original Sin. President Biden's decline, its cover up and his disastrous choice to run. Again, the criticism came from all sides, Democrats, media commentators and late night hosts alike. But where Tapper took the biggest hit I felt was during his appearance on the Megyn Kelly podcast. Kelly, formerly of Fox News and NBC News, cornered him with the kind of rhetorical flair she's tries to be known for. Demanding an apology on behalf of Lara Trump. This moment, it landed with a force. It's reported that Tapper hired a crisis PR expert. And here's like, why.

I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline. That's what I'm refer to. It makes me uncomfortable.

You are. No, that's so amazing.

You're trying to tell me that what I was suggesting was I think that.

You were mocking his stutter. I think you were mocking his stutter. And I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline.

And it's very concerning to a lot of people that this could be the leader of the free world. That is all I'm saying. I genuinely feel sorry for Joe.

I appreciate it. I'm sure it was from a place of concern. We all, we all believe that Lara Trump. Thank you so much.

Do you want to apologize to Lara Trump now? Tapper knew it was coming. If Biden's decline wasn't evident, why didn't you report it sooner? A fair question, especially for someone now making headlines for revealing what he didn't say, then enter my personal bias. If you agree to sit across from Megyn Kelly, you know what you're walking into? Soundbites, receipts. And if you're promoting a book that pulls back the curtain on a presidency you help cover, you better be ready to answer for what you've left out. Original Sin is loaded with revelations. I loved this book, but what caught my attention was the COVID up itself. As a crisis manager, I work with leaders who try to do exactly what Biden's circle did. Bury the truth and hope no one digs. But they always do. This week, I'm breaking down the five communication mistakes that led to what I call the original communication sins. The missteps, the choices that turned concern into crisis. Welcome to the PR Breakdown, a podcast where we expose the spin, the COVID up, and the cracks in communication behind today's headlines. I'm your host, Molly McPherson. Did I read the book? No, because technically I listened to it. I started Original Sin on a flight to San Francisco to deliver a keynote on leadership and communication. And let me tell you, this book was practically written for that stage. It's a case study in what not to do when your job is to inform, lead or protect a reputation. This book, which is currently at number two on the Amazon list of nonfiction bestsellers, behind Mel Robbins the Let Them Theory and let me tell you, nothing drives me more crazy than seeing Mel Robbins at number one. Why do people buy this book? It's a compilation of other people's work, including Cassie Phillips, a 32 year old military spouse, a mother too, who wrote a poem titled Let Them. But that's another misinformation campaign for another day. Back to the one in this book the Biden Cover Up Tapper's Book Keep plenty of scrutiny on Biden's inner circle and the former President himself, but also the author Jake Tapper. Co author Alex Thompson I think is getting lost in the shuffle, which I assume he doesn't mind one bit because there is a lot of backlash. But the revelations in the book also points a finger in the direction of Democratic leadership, President Biden himself, President Biden's family and staff for not revealing more about Biden's declining health. I'm not here to shed more light on those topics. There's plenty of content out there for you to chew on. I'm more interested in sharing what truly interested me about this book. The Machinations. Now Tapper uses an alternative pronunciation, machinations. But it was the COVID up that got me because as a full time crisis manager, I deal with leaders, public figures and sudden public figures who hire me to cya cover their assumptions that hiding the truth is a wise strategy. It's not. In this episode I'm breaking down the five communication and leadership mistakes, let's call them sins, that led to the original sin of Biden throwing his hat into the ring for the 2024 election. Because the details that Tapper and Thompson reveal that Biden likely couldn't muster the strength to toss anything like me. If you read the book and keep asking yourself how did they get away with the deception? The COVID it starts here. Over half of U.S. adults say they get some of their news from social media. This is from a Pew Research center study from September 2024 and it points to the source memes, viral videos, commentary, influencers, spin clips, AI. People don't get their news from direct sources as much these days and that impacts elections. Now, the positive of social media people are becoming more interested because of viral campaigns. Think about Kamala Harris and falling out of a coconut tree. More voters, younger voters. But the flip side? With the proliferation of content available, it becomes more challenging to vet what is good information from misinformation and disinformation. That creates instability in politics. And with 64% of the American population believing that the US democracy is in crisis and at risk of failing well, in this type of climate, a communication failure isn't just a mistake, it's a threat. Here are five original communication sins that I pulled out of the book. Number one Obfuscation over honesty. The sin Withholding or twisting the truth to preserve control Examples Original Sin provides numerous examples of how Biden's inner circle, even senior Democratic leadership, obscured the President's mental and physical decline. His closest aides, family members created a carefully controlled environment that masked the President's limitations. Public events were choreographed to a degree that went beyond routine political management. It was fascinating to hear how they cut time limits where he was speaking, where they brought in teleprompters, even into private fundraisers in homes, staff limited unscripted interactions where they could. They structured short engagements around Biden's energy dips and ensured photo ops and conveyed strength. You saw those aviator glasses. But behind the scenes, the reality was sobering. Biden was forgetting the names of longtime allies like his national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, who he called Steve, or his longtime communication director, Kate Benfield, who he called Press. He was stumbling during classified briefings. He even forgot the date of his son Beau's death. One source described the White House leadership as a five person board. But there were a few other people in there that a lot of insiders were calling the Politburo. They were made up of a small, close knit group of advisors, family members and senior aides who effectively ran the White House during Biden's presidency. They include Mike Donilon, a longtime strategist, and senior advisor Steve Richetti, counselor to the President Bruce Reed, who is a domestic policy advisor and former chief of staff. The first lady Dr. Jill Biden. There's Hunter Biden, of course, the President's son. He was very influential and discouraging his father from withdrawing from the 2024 race. Ron Klain, he was the former White House chief of staff. Annie Tomasini, she was a senior advisor and director of Oval Office operations. And Anthony Bernal, he was a senior advisor to the First Lady. It was this group of people, their willful ignorance and deliberate denial that created what Tapper and Thompson call the original sin, the fateful mistake that set off a chain of damaging consequences. The lesson here is that transparency isn't a luxury, it's a liability shield. Concealing is an issue, especially when it's about the health or leadership capacity of a president or a leader. It only delays the fallout and deepens public betrayal when the truth surfaces, because the truth always does. 2. Silencing dissent the sin Discrediting or ignoring internal or external concerns Tapper and Thompson describe a sustained pattern of dismissing or silencing concerns both inside and outside the White House about Biden's cognitive functioning and his health. Reporters like Kathryn Lucey from the Wall Street Journal were targeted by internal White House campaigns when questions were raised about Biden's performance. Aide and staffers who voiced concerns internally were described as alarmist, and many were either reassigned or boxed out of meetings in Congress. Democratic leaders who questioned the strategy were told to stay silent for the good of the party. One anecdote recounts a senator who raised Biden's cognitive issues in a closed door session, only to be rebuked as, quote, giving Republicans a weapon, end quote. And special counsel Robert Hur. The book goes deep into choosing Robert Hur and what happened to Robert Hur for being appointed special counsel. In that testimony, he describes Biden's memory issues and how it was treated as a betrayal rather than a warning and during a fundraiser. This was remarkable in the book for Biden 2022, the president did not recognize George Clooney despite their long standing relationships. That went back to a time when Biden was in the Senate. That eventually led to Clooney writing an op ed calling out Biden's deteriorating memory and urging Biden to drop out of the race, Part of the Politburo. Richetti read the op ed and was reportedly furious. Internally it was said that he threatened to shut Clooney down, but he was talked out of it and some of the colleagues in the book said he sounded like a mob boss. The lesson Pushback is not the problem. Ignoring it is respectful Dissent is a check on blind spots. When leaders mute the messenger, they lose the message and the trust that came with it. 3. Loyalty over truth the sin Valuing allegiance more than accuracy Example Loyalty was both a shield and a blindfold in the Biden administration. The book illustrates how senior officials enabled an environment where feedback was filtered based on what the president would want to hear, not what he needed to know. One account describes aides privately acknowledging Biden's struggles but refusing to speak up during meetings. Okay, there are many accounts describing aides privately acknowledging Biden's struggles but refusing to speak up during meetings for fear of seeming disloyal. This Politburo style structure around Biden became more about preserving access than challenging direction. And even when major donors and Democratic governors voiced concerns about the campaign strategy, the inner circle stood by the belief that Joe can do this without any evidence or accountability. There were moments in the presidency and in the campaign where Joe Biden was Biden when he was empathetic, when he was sympathetic, when he could really connect with voters. But in the end he couldn't sustain it. The lesson if your inner circle is afraid to correct you, you don't have advisors anymore. You have enablers. Effective leaders foster environments where hard truths are welcomed, not punished. 4. Filtered feedback loops the sin creating distance between reality and decision makers Examples I couldn't believe, hearing this in the book, that policy briefings were often mediated by staff. When they had transcriptions where Biden would get it wrong, they would strike the transcription and correct it. They edited, reframed poll results, scheduling decisions and performance reviews. Even data from key battleground states were routinely presented to Biden in a much rosier light. So it was advisors who felt had a better sense of public sentiment better than public pollsters. Aides were filtering negative information and trends out of fear that a candid assessment to the president would derail the entire reelection strategy. In one account, Biden remained convinced he was gaining traction in Arizona and Georgia, even as the internal models showed the opposite. It was so incredibly blatant and they got away with it. The lesson Every filtered message makes a leader more reactive and less effective. This happens a lot. People don't want to tell the boss the truth. But unfiltered information, good, bad or uncomfortable, is like the oxygen of responsible decision making. 5 short term wins long term damage the SIN choosing optics over outcomes Examples Perhaps the most damaging effect of the COVID up outlined by Tapper and Thompson in the book was that it paved the way for Donald Trump's resurgence. Rather than reckon with Biden's limitations early have a serious discussion with decisions about Biden's true ability to win an election while being fully transparent about the failings, the health and cognitive failings, the inner circle, the Politburo focused on visual optics. They created viral moments, carefully staged events, tight scripts. They filmed an ad. They put people together like in a town hall setting, and they filmed Biden speaking from a teleprompter and they tried over and over and over to make it work. In the end they had to scrap the entire thing Everything was highly structured and orchestrated. During overseas trips, Biden's handlers blocked full press access and instead pushed these light hearted interactions in human interest angles. The stunts that helped deflect scrutiny in the short term, but did little to counter growing doubts. There was a really remarkable part where Biden was taking a train from Ukraine to Poland, I believe, and how exhausting that would be to do it. The book also details how Biden did not attend dinners and meals and meetings with other international leaders and presidents because they didn't think that he could handle it. Instead, they would send Anthony Blinken, the former Secretary of State. Sometimes he would get only a day's notice to attend an overseas meeting or meal on behalf of Biden. Meanwhile, people were suspicious. Major Democratic donors started to pull back. The allies distanced themselves. These global leaders, they were still very cordial and public to Biden. But reportedly in the book there was a lot of contingency planning around us. Instability. The lesson Short term spend might buy time, but it sells out credibility. Once stakeholders realize they've been misled, the crisis doesn't end. It metastasizes the five original communication sins. Well, this is what happens when the COVID up becomes the crisis. And these aren't just White House problems, they're workplace problems. They're non profit board problems. They're corporate leadership problems. The playbook is always the same. Deny, delay, deflect, discredit, then scramble. I know this. This is why I created my indestructible PR framework. My trademarked indestructible pr. Not the pending trademark of one Mel Robbins for the term let them. And then if that gets through, you will soon be able to see stationary items, printed books in the field of self help, self improvement, self development, personal development, motivation, relationships, confidence, mindset goals, health, wellness stickers. Let's move back to my framework. I did not steal it from a blog post. I created it to stop this type of cycle you see in a crisis. Own it, explain it, promise it. That's how you neutralize a cover up. That's how you rebuild credibility. It works. Want to hear it in action?

Knowing what I know now, obviously I feel tremendous humility about my coverage. That Lara Trump interview, for example, et cetera. She saw some. She saw something that I did not see at the time, 100% and I own that.

Did you hear it? So yes, Tapper's getting flack. Some of it fair, some of it not. On substack last week during my Friday Fallout live chat. Every Friday when I'm in town, I I like to hop on Substack around noontime to highlight the PR fails or fallouts of the week. Last week I discussed original sin. You can find that video if you follow me On Substack, I shared why the Tapper CNN hype issue left me with somewhat squishy feelings. Tapper especially was getting a lot of blowback as a journalist, as a working journalist writing this book, hyping this book. Cnn, which published the book's rollout like a huge marquee event, has been accused of overhyping its own employees project. Many people were saying, that's not journalism. You can't do that. But you know, it's brand synergy. It's a business. I understand the ethical tension. I don't dismiss it at all. But at the same time, I get it. Meanwhile, CBS News lost two top executives, Wendy McMahon, the head of the news division, and 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens. Why? Because Paramount, CBS's parent company, is navigating a political volatile merger with SkyDance Media, and Trump's legal team is now a stakeholder in that mediation. All of it adds up to this Journalism isn't just about truth nowadays. It's about platforms and profit and positioning. So in short, content is currency and everyone, yes, even legacy anchors, are now content creators. The lines between storytelling and strategy and spin, They've never been squishier for good and for not so good. But the core lesson remains. Spin is a short term strategy. Truth is a long game. When you attempt to spin or hide information from your key stakeholders, you are only left naked and exposed. If you work in a place where truth gets filtered, forwarded or outright ignored. Go ahead, send this episode to the person who needs to hear it. Leave a review. Let me know the most helpful idea from today's episode. Or you can share it directly with me on Substack or under a blog post where I am posting this list so you can check that out at PRBreakdown Media, I have a chat open right now with members of the group to get their take on the book, the COVID up and who took the biggest hit in the book. You can see my answer in the chat. Again, it's open to my substacks to subscribers, so I hope to see your answer there. That's all for this week on the podcast. Bye for now.