President Biden’s granddaughter is forcefully defending the former president one day before a new tell-all book is due to be released detailing his mental and physical decline during his presidency, and the efforts made to keep that decline hidden from the public. Naomi Biden says the book amounts to nothing more than “political fairy smut.”

Mr. Biden, who was just diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer, had been trying to get back into the national spotlight, seemingly to preempt the release of the new book. Written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” covers how Mr. Biden lost a step in the last two years of his presidency and helped pave President Trump’s path back to the White House. 

Ms. Biden says the accusations of incapacity levied against her grandfather are completely false. 

“Just read a copy of this silly book, and if anyone is curious for a review from someone who lived it first-hand: this book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class. The ones who rarely enter the arena, but profit from the spectacle of those that do,” she writes on X. 

Ms. Biden has long been a defender of her family — especially her grandfather and her own father, Hunter Biden. She even testified on her father’s behalf at his criminal trial in Delaware last year, saying that he had recovered from his addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol. The younger Mr. Biden was seen wiping tears from his eyes as his daughter answered questions from the witness stand. 

Of the book by Messrs. Tapper and Thompson, Ms. Biden says “Original Sin” relies on anonymous sources who are trying to rid themselves of her grandfather, whom she describes as “so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to ever understand the why or how of it all.”

“It amounts to a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self-promoting journalists out to make a quick buck,” Ms. Biden writes. “It relies on unnamed, anonymous sources pushing a self-serving false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare.”

“There are real stories to be told and one day they will be. I suspect history will reward the truth,” she adds. 

Excerpts of the book leaked to the press so far have been damning, including accusations that the then-president’s staff discussed the possibility of him having to use a wheelchair in a potential second term. Axios gained access to audio recordings of Mr. Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur in October 2023, during which the president forgot the date that he left the vice presidency, asked staff about when his eldest son passed away, and was fed answers from his personal lawyer, Bob Bauer.