As former President Joe Biden campaigned for a second term in the White House last year, his advisors were secretly discussing the possibility that he would need to use a wheelchair after the election.
That’s according to the book Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, scheduled for release Tuesday. Axios revealed this new detail from the book this week in an exclusive report. It said advisors privately discussed the possibility due to the former president’s declining health in 2023 and 2024.
Biden is currently 82. His record as the oldest person elected to the presidency was beaten by current President Donald Trump last year.
Following a widely criticized performance in his first debate against Trump last summer, Biden ended his campaign. Former Vice President Kamala Harris was selected as the new Democratic candidate during the Democratic National Convention in August and she ran the shortest campaign in modern history.
Recently, Biden appeared with his wife, former First Lady Jill Biden on “The View” and told the hosts he believes that sexism and racism were to blame for Harris’ loss to Trump. As vice president, Harris is currently the woman who has held the highest elected office in the U.S. She was also the first candidate of both Black and South Asian ancestry.
Regarding Biden’s health heading into the 2024 election, his team was concerned about the “significant degeneration of his spine,” according to the Axios report. Concerns became heightened after Biden tripped over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy in June 2023.
“They tried to figure out shorter walking paths, began insisting on handrails for steps up to the stage at his appearances, had him wear sneakers more often, changed his visual briefings before events to ensure he knew every step he was expected to take, and guided him more carefully through the movements,” said the outlet of efforts Biden aides took to avoid another incident. Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, also urged his team to let the president get more rest.
If Biden had needed to use a wheelchair during a second term, he wouldn’t have been the first president to do so. Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used a wheelchair after developing infantile paralysis in 1921. However, he kept that a secret from the American public during his tenure in the White House from 1933 to his death in 1945.
“Not only did he serve an unprecedented four terms in office, but he was also the first president with a significant physical disability,” according to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
It also said that FDR used a special, small profile wheelchair that he designed himself and used various methods to hide his disability while also championing for disabled people in the U.S. These methods included using a cane and the help of his son or aides and swinging himself around flights of stairs.
“FDR requested that the press avoid photographing him walking, maneuvering, or being transferred from his car. The stipulation was accepted by most reporters and photographers but periodically someone would not comply,” said the museum. “The Secret Service was assigned to purposely interfere with anyone who tried to snap a photo of FDR in a ‘disabled or weak’ state.”
While Biden aides told reporters that Biden’s “halting” gait was due to a 2020 foot fracture, Axios said that O’Connor has disputed that narrative. O’Connor said that the fracture healed well but that the former president had “significant spinal arthritis.”
“Asked about the book’s reporting, a Biden spokesperson who declined to be identified said in a statement to Axios that Biden’s ‘medical exam made clear that he had a stiffened gait caused, in part, by wear and tear to his spine – but that no special treatment was necessary and that it had not worsened,’” and went on to say that Biden had been “transparent” about the issue.
Previously, Audacy reported on revelations from Tapper and Thompson’s new book. According to a Penguin Random House press release, the authors demonstrate that Biden and his team “lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations.”
This Friday, Axios reported that more information about Biden’s health was revealed in the form of audio from his October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur. According to the outlet, these recordings included “long, uncomfortable pauses,” and Biden seemed to struggle to recall when his son died, when he left office as vice president, what year Donald Trump was elected or why he had classified documents he shouldn’t have had.
“The newly released recordings of Biden having trouble recalling such details – while occasionally slurring words and muttering – shed light on why his White House refused to release the recordings last year, as questions mounted about his mental acuity,” said Axios.