Former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison pushed back on reporting from Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s new book about former President Biden on Sunday, calling the claim that the former president didn’t recognize him a “bold-faced lie.”
“In the book, it says that you had an interaction with President Biden where he didn’t recognize you. And you said to some other Democrat that wasn’t good, right? I heard that you said this didn’t happen. So did it happen or not?” MSNBC’s “The Weekend” host Eugene Daniels asked Harrison.
Thompson and Tapper’s book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” claims that Biden didn’t recognize Harrison at an event in 2023. The book also claims Biden didn’t recognize actor George Clooney at a fundraiser in 2024.
“It was a bold-faced lie. I don’t know where the hell they got that from. And I’ve told that to Alex. That is a bold-faced lie, and it’s really, excuse my language, pissing me off that they continue to push it and say it. I have told them, unless I need to get a cognitive test, and I just totally forget all these things. But, I’m 49, but maybe, maybe I’ll go to my doctor and check. That did not happen,” Harrison said.
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“So, for me, it provides me all of what I need to know about what this book is about,” Harrison added, casting doubt on other portions of the book.
Harrison specifically pushed back against the viral clip of former President Obama leading Biden off the stage at the 2024 fundraiser.
“That part where they show Barack Obama holding on to Joe Biden’s arm and leading him off, right in front of us, my wife and I, and I went to my wife when I heard about that in the book, and I said, ‘wasn’t that where those three young, it was three young white men who was standing up yelling at Joe Biden about Palestine. They were protesting right up front, and he was trying to listen to what they were saying, and Obama grabbed his arm and pulled him away. My wife said, ’yeah, I remember that.’ We were sitting right there in the audience,” he said.
Tapper recently said the White House lied about the video, which they called a “cheapfake,” at the time.
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“The Biden White House falsely- when people showed that clip and asked what was going on- said it was a ‘cheap fake.’ They did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out-of-it way, they would call it a ‘cheap fake.’ It was not fake. It was actual video,” Tapper said.
Harrison added, “that book lost all credibility when they put my name in it for something that did not happen, and then they continued to double down on that particular story.”
The former DNC chair disputed the claim about him in the book on social media earlier this month.
“Better check my cognitive abilities as well because I sure as hell don’t remember this,” he wrote, accusing the authors of making up their reporting.
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Axios’ director of editorial communications Jake Wilkins pushed back and said the authors of the book “didn’t make anything up.”
Harrison backed the former president after his disastrous debate performance, citing support from Americans and said, “we’re still riding with Biden.”
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