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Jake Tapper’s Biden book has already faded from the news cycle, but it is being examined because some of its claims are not as the authors described them.
Politico obtained ads that Tapper and Thompson claim that the Biden campaign couldn’t use because the then president’s performance was so poor, and found that the situation wasn’t so simple.
Three versions of test ads obtained exclusively by POLITICO tell a slightly more complicated story.
While all three are highly edited and feature jump cuts of Biden’s remarks, the footage also shows the candidate engaging with members of the audience. POLITICO viewed dated documents related to the town hall’s planning and a painting in the gym to confirm the date and location.
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A Biden spokesperson tells POLITICO that the campaign tested the ads with focus groups but did not deploy them before the president dropped out of the race following his disastrous June 2024 debate.
There is also a claim that the ads were not able to be used because the footage contained lighting and technical issues, which is something that happens regularly when shooting campaign ads.
There is also the issue of the fact-checking that Tapper and Thompson claim to have paid for. It turns out that the fact checking was limited as related to the book. Biden aides are also claiming that no one ever reached out to the subject of the book, Biden and his team, to fact check it with them.
Tapper and Thompson never talked to the book’s subject to verify any of their information, and neither did their fact-checkers.
The emerging picture is of two authors who came into the writing process with a predetermined conclusion, who sought information that allowed them to write the story they wanted to tell.
The authors seem not to have researched in an effort to write a history of what happened in the Biden administration, but they had decided to write a book on “Biden’s decline,” and then conducted interviews for quotes they could use to support their predetermined conclusion.
In this context, the book looks like a sensationalistic cash grab.
Real presidential histories take years to write. They aren’t slapped together in a few months. Actual historians talk to the subjects when possible, or at least offer the subject the opportunity to speak.
It is embarrassing that profits seem to have been placed ahead of a thorough academic and investigative writing process.
The American people deserve a well-researched and detailed account of the Biden presidency, including the 2024 campaign.
What Tapper and Thompson wrote isn’t it.