Democratic Party strategist James Carville said that former President Joe Biden’s decline was clearly apparent to him and most of the voting public prior to the 2024 election, reacting to CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s recent book he co-authored on the cover-up.
“And I think that Jake [Tapper], in that book, I mean, it was a good book, but to me it was a ‘water is wet’ book,” Carville told Fox News’ Will Cain of Tapper’s book, “Original Sin,” which came out this week.
The book, which details how Biden’s inner circle worked to keep his sharp decline a secret, is sourced from conversations with administration officials and high-ranking Democratic insiders. The reaction to the book has been mixed, with praise for its revelations but also derision for coming late to the party.
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“And I was saying this since 2022, alright?” Carville continued. “I think it was a big mistake for him to say he was running for reelection. And I’ve said it at the time and I will say it now, and I will say it a thousand times.”
“It’s not a job for 80-year olds,” Carville said of Biden’s age. Biden would have been 86 at the end of a second term if he’d been re-elected.
The longtime political strategist argued that the decision to keep Biden in the presidential race until after his disastrous debate performance with President Donald Trump was a critical mistake for Democrats.
“I don’t know if it’s his staff, or if it’s the family or who it is, but whatever it was it was just a colossal mistake, and to this day fervently believe, there’s no way to prove it… I think it cost us the presidency,” Carville said.
Biden dropped out of the race last July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement, but she lost to Trump. Some Democrats say Biden put Harris in an impossible position by waiting to leave the contest until less than four months before the election.
Tapper’s book has prompted a new wave of debates on Biden’s declining mental acuity during his term, but the author has also admitted to failing to report sufficiently on the president’s health concerns in his role at CNN as a news anchor.
Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
