Several top Obama allies are bucking the trend of remaining quiet and are speaking out about just how bad things were with former President Joe Biden.
Former Obama advisor Van Jones delivered a stinging assault this week, accusing people surrounding Biden of concealing his significant health deterioration from the American public.
On CNN’s State of the Union, Jones expressed disbelief at Biden’s health and labeled the suspected cover-up by his senior aides as a “crime against this republic.”
His comments follow disclosures in Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s new book Original Sin, which outlines how Biden’s close associates may have kept his medical concerns hidden.
“I was shocked,” Jones said. “I love Joe Biden. I got a chance to work with him when I was part of the Obama administration. I loved him more every day. I was shocked to see his condition when he came out, and so was the world.”
Jones cited assertions in the book that individuals of Biden’s entourage were aware of his deterioration but stayed silent.
“That wasn’t the first time he was in that condition,” Jones said. “The book makes it very, very clear there are people who knew and said nothing. And that is a crime against this republic. I think the Democrats are going to pay for a long time for being a part of what is now being revealed to be a massive cover-up.”
Former Obama aide and Pod Save America co-host Jon Lovett admitted on Jon Stewart’s “The Weekly Show” podcast that he deliberately held back his concerns about President Joe Biden’s physical decline during the 2024 campaign.
Speaking with Stewart and fellow Pod Save America host Jon Favreau, Lovett explained that he chose not to raise the issue publicly because he wanted Biden “to f—— win.”
“I remember feeling I want to talk about this as a huge liability. To talk about this is something Joe Biden can overcome, but I’m not going to go so far as to say, ‘I think Joe Biden must drop out. He is too old to be president,’” Lovett said on the podcast. “A, because I didn’t know exactly what was going on behind the scenes, but B, if Joe Biden is the candidate, I want him to f—— win.”
Lovett expressed concern that his criticisms might be used against Biden by political opponents.
He went on to say that he kept his concerns to himself in order to avoid “having the words we’re saying taken out of context and all of a sudden be part of the case against Joe Biden from the right — that would use any person criticizing Joe Biden from the left as a weapon against him.”
“So it was about being honest about Joe Biden’s age as a liability while knowing that if he is the nominee, I want to be clear that I thought it was important to make sure we did everything we could to reelect him,” Lovett added, according to Fox News.
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson have recently described concerns about Biden’s health while promoting their new book, “Original Sin,” which details his physical and cognitive decline and alleges a coordinated effort by his administration to conceal it.
Lovett appears in Original Sin in an anecdote describing a White House meeting on April 26, 2024, with his Pod Save America co-hosts Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer. According to the book, the group left the meeting “deeply disturbed,” with the authors portraying Biden as rambling and “incoherent” during the conversation.
In conjunction with concerns about Biden’s cognitive decline, a growing number of Republicans and Trump administration officials are voicing new concerns over the increased use of an autopen during Biden’s last year in office.
Some have speculated that Biden officials used the pen to sign documents on his behalf, including a series of highly controversial last-minute pardons, without the former president’s actual knowledge.