Joe Biden Fires Back at Jake Tapper's 'Lie' Claiming Ex-Prez Forgot His Own Son Died of Cancer

Joe Biden has furiously fired back at new claims in the paperback edition of Jake Tapper's Original Sin that the former president was so mentally confused during his time in the White House that he believed his beloved late son Beau was still alive, years after his tragic death, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The paperback version includes new allegations not in the hardcover, initially published in May 2025, including one in which the former president, 83, forgot a close pal had died despite delivering the eulogy at his 2021 funeral.

In Tapper's book, co-authored with Alex Thompson, the paperback version included the shocking description of the 46th president's cognitive decline during his White House years.

"Biden seemed to think his son Beau, who died in 2015, was still alive and fighting cancer," an excerpt read.

Beau died in May 2015 at the age of 46 after a battle with brain cancer.

That description is incredibly significant because, according to Barack Obama's vice president, it was the main reason he decided not to run for president when his boss's term ended.

He told reporters in the White House Rose Garden in October 2015, "As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along what I've said time and again to others, that it may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for President, that it might close. I've concluded it has closed."

Hillary Clinton went on to secure the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential race, only to lose to Donald Trump.

Biden's camp slammed the claims in Tapper's paperback edition, claiming he thinks about his late son constantly and is aware he's no longer among the living.

"There has not been a single day since May 30, 2015 when President Biden has not felt the pain of losing his son Beau to cancer, and for anyone to suggest otherwise, much less profit off that lie, speaks volumes about the character and credibility of the authors," his spokesperson fired back.

Biden staged a political comeback and captured the White House in 2020. However, his presidency was not without gaffes and rumors of cognitive decline.

Twice in 2022, Biden publicly referred to his son's death, but appeared to allege that he died in Iraq during his deployment with the Delaware National Guard.

Elsewhere in the paperback edition, a new excerpt claims Biden forgot that his longtime pal and Senate colleague, Bob Dole, had died at age 98, despite delivering the eulogy at the Washington National Cathedral funeral on December 10, 2021.

Biden was no stranger to embarrassing mix-ups during his presidency, including a jaw-dropping September 2022 blunder when he appeared to forget that Republican Congresswoman Jackie Walorski had died in a car crash just weeks earlier.

The then-president scanned the crowd at a White House event, asking, "Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie?"

The awkward slip-up sent the White House scrambling into damage-control mode, with then-press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisting the late lawmaker was simply "top of mind."

Co-author Thompson defended his and Tapper's reporting in the updated version of Original Sin.

“Read the book, make up your own mind. Paperback out Tuesday w/ new reporting,” he wrote on X.

CNN anchor and left-leaning Tapper took heat when the book originally came out, as he was called a hypocrite for past defenses of Biden.

However, in a May 2025 interview, Tapper insisted he had been fed a steady stream of false assurances from the then-president's inner circle about his cognitive health, declaring, "We were just lied to over and over again," by Biden's handlers.