For Democrats, there’s no escaping (for now) the Biden hangover from 2024.

The verdict is in. Joe Biden is to blame. So too are the advisers who protected him in the White House by hiding his frailties. Together they unwittingly choreographed the comeback of President Donald Trump. The country is living with the consequences, and the Democratic Party is looking for a way out of the wilderness.

That, at least, is the underlying charge of books about the 2024 election. The one drawing the most attention is the newest, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.” Written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, the book will not be released until Tuesday, but prepublication excerpts have made waves…..

Biden isolated from Cabinet members and lawmakers in the latter years of his presidency. Biden’s workdays reduced in hours. Biden tethered to a teleprompter even at intimate fundraisers. Advisers fearful that another fall could require him to use a wheelchair in a second term.

The portrait of his inner circle is as damning. Key advisers and family members are described as shielding the president to a fault, dismissive of any suggestion that he was failing. When a report from special counsel Robert K. Hur described Biden as “a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,” his handlers (and the president) were indignant. Was all this hubris, blind loyalty, a conspiracy of silence? That depends on where you sit……

Some Democrats are angry that the focus has fixed on Biden’s decline rather than what they see as admirable accomplishments in office. Others simply find it a distraction from the business of battling with Trump. Biden has added to the drama by publicly challenging the conclusions of authors, as he seeks to shape a legacy tarnished by the closing months of his presidency.

The Tapper-Thompson book isn’t the only one out there. “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, made a splash when it was released in early April. “Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History,” by Chris Whipple, included startling descriptions from Ron Klain, Biden’s former White House chief of staff, about the president’s woeful preparations ahead of his terrible debate. “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” by (former and current colleagues) Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, will be released in July.

These portraits of a Biden in decline are something that the world saw at his disastrous debate with Trump on June 27. That halting performance prompted his decision to withdraw and elevate Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s nominee, which many Democrats believe doomed her to a short and unsuccessful campaign.

Even in the days after the debate, let alone the months prior, most Democratic lawmakers were reluctant to call publicly for Biden’s withdrawal. A story in the Wall Street Journal sometime before the debate, charting Biden’s decline, drew a pile-on from the White House and many Democratic officials (and some in the media) for relying on mostly Republican sources.

Why did he not? Pride is one answer. Stubbornness another. The reluctance to cede power, especially the ultimate power on the planet. A belief that only he could stop Trump from winning again. A lack of confidence in Harris to lead the party in the election, a view expressed by presidential advisers to some on the outside who pleaded that Biden should not seek a second term. A belief that even a dramatically diminished Biden would be safer for the country than Trump. A belief that — despite polls showing him losing to Trump — he could still win, though other strategists saw no such path, given voters who thought he was too old for another term. Biden still asserts that had he been on the ballot, he would have defeated Trump.

Biden might have drawn a primary challenge had it not been for the 2022 midterm elections, which, though narrowly lost by Democrats, went better than they had expected. As Biden claimed a moral victory in the aftermath, potential challengers melted away, ultimately denying the party a test between Biden and those of a younger generation.

Some who were urged to run, according to a Democrat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, demurred. They did not want to be blamed for so weakening Biden in a primary that Trump could win the election. Had Biden been challenged in the primaries and forced to debate other Democrats, would his frailties have emerged early enough to force him out of the race? That was the thinking of some who hoped to see a competitive nomination contest.

When Biden finally quit the race, Harris had too many hurdles to overcome in a short time. Some Democrats believe she could have won, had she run a different kind of campaign. Others still doubt she could have surmounted the dissatisfaction with Biden and an opaque profile that left her vulnerable to attack. She is currently mulling her future, with another run for president and a campaign for governor of California among her choices.

The anger at Biden for choosing to run in the first place is still white-hot among some Democrats. David Plouffe, who helped Barack Obama win two elections and was brought in to advise the Harris campaign, is quoted by Tapper and Thompson as saying of Biden, “He totally f—ed us.” That kind of fury from a strategist toward a president of his or her party is rare. Such is the fallout from this episode.

The focus on Biden comes at an awkward time for the Democratic Party, which should be looking forward rather than backward. Some Democrats are angry that the focus has fixed on Biden’s decline rather than what they see as admirable accomplishments in office. Others simply find it a distraction from the business of battling with Trump. Biden has added to the drama by publicly challenging the conclusions of authors, as he seeks to shape a legacy tarnished by the closing months of his presidency. Many Democrats wish he would stay out of view.

For now, there is no escaping this excavation of the final months of Biden’s presidency. The question is whether Democrats will use Biden as an excuse to ignore deeper problems that helped Trump prevail in 2024 and that continue to hamper them as they try to make a comeback of their own — issues of the party’s tattered coalition, of identity politics, and most important its economic priorities and program. That debate has barely started, to the dismay of many in the party.

Dan Balz, Washington Post