A veteran Democratic operative and former Biden administration communications staffer is managing public relations for a newly released book that alleges President Joe Biden’s mental decline during his time in office.
“Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, has garnered significant attention since its release on Tuesday, detailing concerns about Biden’s cognitive acuity and accusing the White House of concealing his true condition.
The authors retained the crisis management firm Heller to handle the book’s publicity, directing media inquiries to Nate Evans, a senior vice president at the firm and a seasoned Democratic communications aide.
Evans, who joined Heller five months ago after Biden left office, previously served in a New York-based State Department role during Biden’s presidency, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he held senior communications advisory positions for Vice President Kamala Harris, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and the Biden 2020 campaign in Wisconsin.
Sources familiar with Biden administration staffing indicated that Evans’s previous roles would have afforded him “little-to-no face time” with the president. His resume also includes stints on Harris’s 2019 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and the Obama White House.
Evans’s personal X (formerly Twitter) account initially listed him as a spokesperson for both Harris and Biden, but this information was removed shortly after Fox News Digital inquired about his past work. Evans did not respond to requests for comment.
Risa Heller, the firm’s founder and CEO, previously served as communications director for Senator Chuck Schumer.
The book’s revelations about Biden’s alleged mental decline have sparked considerable debate, with conservatives criticizing the perceived lateness of these disclosures. Tapper has publicly acknowledged “humility” regarding his past coverage of Biden, conceding that some criticism is “fair.”
“I think some of the criticism is fair, to be honest,” Tapper told CNN. “Of me, certainly. I’m not going to speak for anybody else, but knowing then what I know now, I look back at my coverage during the Biden years — and I did cover some of these issues, but not enough. I look back on it with humility.”
Tapper declined to comment on the record, while Thompson did not respond to a request for comment.
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