PROMISE ME, JAKE

Jake Tapper Ghosts His Own Book After Being Accused of Lies

The CNN anchor is hardly pushing his paperback Joe Biden polemic, our must-read newsletter The Swamp reveals.

A Blue Wave may have swept through Washington, but it has hardly swept away the sleaze. The Swamp’s David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, Sarah Ewall-Wice and Laura Esposito will be exposing the dirty washing from both parties as we double down on our hunt for all the nooze from the ooze the politicians—new and old—don’t want you to know. Don’t miss out.

In this week’s news from the ooze: Jake Tapper, Sherrod Brown, Beau Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Jon Ossoff, Sam Forstag, Rebecca Bennett, Jessica Killin, Richard Ojeda, Sarah Trone Garriott, Christina Bohannan, Lindsay James, Bob Brooks, Paige Cognetti, Rebecca Cooke, Amy McGrath, Stephen Miller, Alex Thompson, Thomas Massie, Donald Trump, Anthony Tata, Peggy Flanagan, Abdul El-Sayed, Annie Andrews, Chris Pappas, Kara Swisher, Haley Stevens, Klaus Barbie and William Shakespeare.

Why Jake Tapper May Be Wishing His Name Wasn’t on MAGA’s Favorite Book

Book News 1. Under normal circumstances, the release of the paperback edition of a major biography of a living former president, replete with new details thanks to fresh reporting since the hardback’s publication, might spark a frenzy of publicity. Interviews, extracts, podcasts, bookshop tours: The author(s) would have a packed month or more promoting it in time for Christmas.

So what to make of Jake Tapper’s promotion of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again?

The paperback of the 2025 book about Joe Biden hit bookshops on Tuesday. But you may have wondered whether Tapper, the co-author of the book with Axios reporter Alex Thompson, has anything to say about his work.

First time round, Tapper was a voluble promoter of his work. He and Thompson published an adapted extract in The New Yorker, celebrated an instant number one New York Times bestseller, and criss-crossed TV studios, libraries, and theaters to promote the book. It was just after Biden had left office, and the two seemed to have calculated that there was an appetite for stories of what had gone wrong.

But now Tapper appears to have found himself on the wrong side of the national mood—and the look is even worse given that the former president, now 83, is battling cancer.

Worse for Tapper, Biden and his camp have already savaged the new reporting in the paperback.

Biden’s people made his thoughts on the book crystal clear in biting back at an excerpt from the paperback print of the “Shakespearean drama on steroids” (per the L.A. Times). “Biden seemed to think his son Beau, who died in 2015, was still alive and fighting cancer,” reads the excerpt.

A spokesperson for Biden dismissed the book … and the authors. “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.” Ouch!

The ex-president’s distress doesn’t appear to have bothered Thompson, who is still digging at Biden despite his illness.

On November 8, the former president posted on X about his own upcoming memoir, PROMISE ME, AMERICA, writing about his cancer fight and saying: “What that means is, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped. However, I’m hopeful the words on the page speak for themselves.”

Thompson jumped on the remark, highlighting a sentence without context on his own X account: “unfortunately, I won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped. However, I’m hopeful the words on the page speak for themselves.” Rubbing salt into the wounds, Thompson added: “Biden also didn’t narrate the audiobook.” In other words, he couldn’t.

At least Thompson is standing up for his reporting. As for Tapper…The Swamp found one appearance on a little-watched CBS online-only show called The Takeout With Major Garrett has racked up a stunning 4,300 views so far. But that’s it.

A spokesperson for Tapper tells The Swamp he’s doing some other (worthy) things. “Aside from preparing for and anchoring his daily show, Jake’s time and energy on social media this week is going to spreading the word about the Homes for Our Troops auction.” (It launched on Tuesday night, and you can bid on eBay.)

With his next book, Tapper is making 100 percent sure he is on the right side of history. His subject is Nazi monster Klaus Barbie. And just to ensure everyone gets the picture, he is doing the drawings, as well.

These Dems Are Running for President by the Book

Book News 2. We can assume that Pete Buttigieg is throwing his hat into the ring for 2028. Or more specifically, his book. The former Transportation Secretary and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has been hovering around these past few months snapping up any available TV spots. He has broadcast from hotel rooms, studios, and even a mobile studio outside a hotel room. Now he is taking the next step: A book discreetly titled Next. Sorry, NEXT.

“In this critical moment for the American project, I’ve been thinking a lot about what comes next,” Pete writes on X in a post promoting his next chapter. But what really comes next? A battle with Wes Moore, the Maryland governor, who, 24 hours after NEXT announced his own addition to the pre-presidential oeuvre, Repair. (Note to Jake Tapper: Long book titles are so over.) And we have to say, there’s something just a bit similar about how they’re describing the books. “Over the past year and a half, I’ve put those thoughts on paper, and they’ve grown into a book I’m proud to share with you. My latest book, NEXT, is not a policy manual. It’s a look at how our nation got to this point, an argument for why this is the moment to build something better, and a case for the principles that should guide us as we do,” says Mayor Pete.

“My goal was never to produce a personal political memoir. It was to pose hard questions and spark honest dialogue. This book is about how we can rediscover our common humanity and relearn our common purpose. I offer my thoughts, with an invitation for readers to lend theirs. In the work of repair, every fingerprint matters,” says Gov. Moore. And in the work of discreetly running for the presidency, every book counts. Next!

Humbling Reality Bites for Election Night Winners

That sound you heard across Capitol Hill this week? It was the air coming out of dozens of puffed-up politicians, all at once, at precisely the moment they turned up for orientation as new members of the House. They had blown through millions of dollars, gripped and grinned for months, taken countless selfies, all to be met by a group of Capitol Hill cops squinting at printed-out photos to see if yes, this really was a member of the incoming 120th Congress. Among those brought down to earth with a bump were Democratic House members-elect like Zach Dembo, Sam Forstag, Rebecca Bennett, Jessica Killin, Richard Ojeda, Sarah Trone Garriott, Christina Bohannan, Lindsay James, Bob Brooks, Paige Cognetti and Rebecca Cooke.

The winners attending new member orientation might have looked thrilled, but also a bit lost. Luckily, a series of signs had been set up to help get them from their office buildings to the Capitol itself.

The incoming class of new senators also showed up Monday. Unlike House members, the newbies, including Abdul El-Sayed, James Talarico, Annie Andrews, and Juliana Stratton got individually greeted and whisked to the Senate floor.

No following signs round a maze for them. Which shows that nothing has changed since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson, who served in the House and the Senate, and who the historian Jon Meacham recorded as saying, “The difference between being a member of the Senate and a member of the House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken s--t.”

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Pentagon Pete Schooled About School By Old School

Pete Hegseth might be fighting for his political life, but that hasn’t stopped the Defense Secretary from trying to tighten his grip on yet another corner of the Pentagon while he waits for a more successful attempt to impeach him. Not content with forcing out female or Black generals, raging over testosterone levels, or going to metaphorical war with “beardos and weirdos,” Hegseth has a new target for a power grab: the brains of future generals.

You might not recall the former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host delivered a bombastic speech on Monday vowing to reform military education. Beneath the usual attacks against “woke” academics was a 33-point directive giving Hegseth greater control over curriculum, faculty oversight and accreditation across the entire military. Eight pages of directives reviewed by The Swamp reveal that Anthony Tata, the Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness, who reports directly to Hegseth, will be in charge of establishing and tracking new standards. Newly hired civilian professors will lose lifetime tenure, instead working on three-year contracts. Existing boards overseeing military colleges will have membership “audits” and restructuring. And the National Defense University and Army University are also set for a shake up. Not all veterans are convinced. “This coming from a man who never attended any of our military institutions of higher learning,” said Marine veteran and F/A-18 pilot Amy McGrath (who tried to unseat Mitch McConnell in 2020.) “If he did, he might know better.” The college overhaul echoes another power grab revealed by The Swamp earlier this year: the creation of a new Office of Religious Affairs, which brought oversight of religious policy directly to Hegseth. But with Thomas Massie and Democrats still pushing to impeach him despite their opening gambit failing, Hegseth better start praying.

Ossoff We Go…

Washington hits different in the wake of last week’s midterm election wipeout. New murals have appeared across D.C. showing Trump and his cabinet getting swamped by a giant blue wave.

The mood at MAGA hangout Butterworth’s has been noticeably more somber as the reality of losing the House, the Senate and the battle over foie gras finally sank in. And “Senate Hunk Lookalike” parties have been popping up, inviting guests who resemble Abdul El-Sayed, Jon Ossoff and James Talarico to join the fun. But beyond the schadenfreude, internal tensions continued to simmer at the Crooked Con political conference over the weekend, where politicians, strategists, and activists debated the future of the Democratic Party as Trump confronts lame duck status. Senator Mark Kelly and Governors Josh Shapiro and Wes Moore all took turns in the spotlight, offering a small glimpse of a potentially very crowded 2028 field.

As for the thousands of liberals prepared to spend $200 to attend the annual confab, they had the chance to have their say on who should win the Democratic presidential nomination in a highly unscientific straw poll. Ossoff, Georgia’s most thirsted-after politician, was the clear winner (with 38.4% of the vote); followed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (16.6%) and Pete Buttigieg (13.9%).

Swish, Swish, Haley

Kara Swisher has no tears left to cry for Dem loser Haley Stevens. The trailblazing tech journalist rolled her eyes over Stevens’ insinuations that the pile-on has nothing to do with her betrayal of Democrats and her endorsing failed Trump candidate Mike Rogers (remember him?), and everything to do with her being a woman. Swisher doesn’t agree. She told The Swamp at The Daily Beast Power 100 Luncheon, sponsored by Uber, that this is solely about “someone who changed her mind at the very last minute.” “She said, it, she has to f–-ing deal with it,” Swisher said. Pivot on that, Rep. Stevens!

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