When The Hill teased that a new book revealed some more juicy dirt on President Joe Biden and his administration, we thought for a moment it was another book, but no, it's just more excerpts from Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's "Original Sin."
The passage that The Hill came across that caught their eye involved Cabinet meetings, which were reportedly scripted.
Biden team scripted Cabinet meetings, used multiples cameras to cover flubs: Book https://t.co/IeQAGAi2ZZ
— The Hill (@thehill) May 20, 2025
BREAKING: President Biden’s team scripted Cabinet meetings and used multiple camera angles to edit out mistakes, according to a new book reported by The Hill.
— Jack (@jackunheard) May 20, 2025
That's the least surprising thing we've heard. Jared Gans reports:
Tapper and Thompson also reported Biden increasingly relied on teleprompters and note cards even for private discussions like Cabinet meetings.
“Before these meetings, White House staff called the various departments and agencies to figure out what they were going to ask the president so that answers could be prepared. The conversations were largely scripted, even after the press had left the room,” the authors reported.
…
When a group would ask Biden to record a five-minute address for keynoting an event, the White House usually responded that the video would be one to two minutes, Tapper and Thompson report. But Biden still struggled with that.
“To compensate for that, aides filmed Biden with two cameras instead of one. If Biden messed up, the edit was less obvious with a jump cut,” they reported. “Other politicians use jump-cuts, but Biden aides noted to themselves how much more often they had to use them for the president.”
Recommended
The jump-cuts were glaringly obvious. This editor counts about five in this 14-second challenge for Donald Trump to "make my day, pal" by agreeing to a debate. (We all know how well that went.)
Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 15, 2024
Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again.
Well, make my day, pal. pic.twitter.com/AkPmvs2q4u
So Biden not only had notecards with the names, faces, and questions that reporters would ask at press conferences; that extended to cabinet meetings as well.
“The Cabinet meetings were terrible and at times uncomfortable — and they were from the beginning,” one secretary told [Tapper and Thompson]. “I don’t recall a great Cabinet meeting in terms of his presence. They were so scripted.”
So it really was just a new season of The West Wing?
— Ben (@benbeben95) May 20, 2025
My god, it keeps getting worse.
— Clint Lord (@lord_clint) May 20, 2025
All that control and it was still bad!
— J.P. Maximus Plebicus (@datainq) May 20, 2025
Every single thing was fake. All of it. Illegitimate President.
— Cynthia Holt (@Ghostofcynthia) May 20, 2025
🤣as if you didn't already know
— DeepSteak (@DeepSteakEater) May 20, 2025
He didn't have flubs. He had no idea where he was or what was happening.
— Alex Krycek (@AlexKrycek1962) May 20, 2025
He didn't even have cabinet meetings because he was incapable. That shrew jill was busy destroying the country behind his corpse.
Remember when Dr. Jill Biden sat in on Cabinet meetings? And Hunter, too?
Was Jill Biden acting-President or did someone else take control. We deserve to know!
— Danny 🇵🇷 (@CasianoPR) May 20, 2025
And The Hill ran cover for them with all their soul for the last 4 years.
— Brad (@BradTakesOn) May 20, 2025
This is why The Hill can never again be trusted.
And you lying deceiving corrupt media knew it. Your credibility is gone.
— 100^andkool🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@andstillkool) May 20, 2025
This is the biggest scandal in the history of politics in America...the Russia hoax is second.
— johanna (@mikobadr79) May 20, 2025
Unbelievable....
None of this is surprising. It's surprising only to the supposed journalists who were covering Biden, who was "sharp as a tack." Now they're pretending they didn't notice what everyone else in the American public noticed.
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member