The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Was Biden’s Decline a Cover-Up? — with Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson
Thu, 22 May 2025
Scott has a conversation with Jake Tapper, anchor of "The Lead" on CNN and the network’s chief Washington correspondent, and Alex Thompson, national political correspondent for Axios and a CNN contributor. They discuss their new book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Scott also opens the episode by addressing the controversy surrounding the book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the central controversy surrounding Biden's decision to run?
I'd see him in these like high school gymnasiums on a Friday night and, you know, armpit Iowa. And he was awful. He was listless. He was mad that he was there. He missed his wife. He missed his daughters. And like Axelrod and those guys, Plouffe, they would kick the shit out of him. Like, what are you doing? Do you want to be president or do you not? And he grew.
He grew and became the Barack Obama that got elected president. And seeing that close up. is an incredible thing. And I don't think that we've, I'm trying to think, I mean, there was a Republican primary this last election, but, you know, Donald Trump was essentially an incumbent running. But watching the process really is just great. And Democrats are so fearful.
They're so terrified that the party's going to nominate Bernie Sanders or whatever. And it's just like, let the party nominate who they want.
We'll be right back.
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Chapter 2: What are the key themes discussed in the book 'Original Sin'?
I'm Phoebe Judge. Listen to our latest episode Action Park on Criminal wherever you get your podcasts.
We're back with more from Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. So just going back to this notion that we have a tendency or this narcissism gets in the way, I'll put forward a thesis and I want you guys to respond to it. And I can't help – I've got two great political minds, so I want to talk a little bit about our current situation. I'm –
And I'm upset that we have this emerging kleptocracy, kakistocracy, whateverocracy you want to call it. And what I think is worse is I feel like we're feckless and neutered in terms of our resistance to it. I feel there's a total lack of leadership on the Democratic side.
And arguably, arguably, you know, the leader of the Democratic Party, I don't know if you'd agree with this, is Senator Schumer. Right. And I think some of that same narcissism and age is coming to fruition there. Do you think there needs to be a process for essentially saying, OK, are these the right people to stink to tenure to put up to represent our party and put up a fight?
If the election, my understanding is the election we're held today, despite everything we know about this kind of mob family approach to governance, Donald Trump would be reelected again. So Senator Schumer and some of the other people in the Democratic Party, do we still suffer from the same narcissism and inability to put the best people forward to put up the fight?
I mean, I think Chuck Schumer – I mean, you talk to many, many Democrats. A lot of people believe Chuck Schumer has lost a few steps. That being said, there is a vacuum, and I think the party is going through a process of reckoning with what just happened. And sometimes those processes take a while. I mean, the Republican Party was in a complete state of catastrophe after 2008.
And it wasn't clear if there was any sort of leader that was emerging. And eventually you did have people come forward. And I think that's what's happening in the Democratic Party. Now, amidst that vacuum, to your point, there's a lot of things happening and there is not really an effective opposition.
I mean, it's up to the Democratic senators and House members to pick their leaders. And, you know, I don't have advice for Democrats and I don't have advice for Republicans. I personally think that... What Democrats that all of Democrats right now are being blamed for the Biden fiasco. And by that, I mean his decision to run for reelection and his decision to hide his deterioration.
Because no one is coming out and saying, as our reporting suggests, this was the fault of President Biden, his wife, and his son, and like a number, a few top aides. But this isn't necessarily something that could be laid on the feet of every single elected Democrat in the country. People saw things, but ultimately they were being lied to by a small group of people.
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