A new book released on Tuesday alleges that a small group of advisors known informally as "the politburo" was running the country during the Biden administration, and that former President Joe Biden was no more than a "senior board member."

"Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by liberal journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, detailed the inner workings of the administration in an attempt to figure out what was going on behind the scenes and what went wrong with his re-election bid.

The members of the alleged "politburo" included Biden's senior advisors and longtime friends, but also First Lady Jill Biden and son Hunter Biden--neither of whom had anywhere near the experience or the public support to be running the country.

“In terms of who was running the White House, it’s a small group of people that have been around,” author Alex Thompson told PBS’ “Washington Week” on Friday. “Some people within the administration called them the Politburo. That’s the term we used in the book.”

"Never seen" this before

“Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board,” a source close to the White House told the authors.

An unidentified cabinet secretary said about the politburo,, “I’ve never seen a situation like this before, with so few people having so much power. They would make huge economic decisions without calling [Treasury] Secretary Yellen.”

“Many of Biden’s own aides were also kept at arm’s length from the president," the book said.

The reason Biden was put up for another term was because the politburo thought it was getting a lot of good things done, and they (not Biden) deserved four more years.

Not normal

It's normal for a president to have advisors around and to consider many other opinions before making decisions.

It's not so normal to have the president be an advisor to the group that's really running things.

In many cases, according to the book, Bidne was little more than a mouthpiece for a cabal that's really in charge.

He was akin to a a rubber stamp for what the group wanted to do. The use of the "autopen" was one example of how Biden wasn't really in charge or aware of everything that being carried out by his office.

No doubt he agreed with much of it, but that's not how the presidency is supposed to work.

The public had a sense of this and rejected it soundly. There were many questions asked about who was really running the country that were never answered, and voters didn't stand for it in 2024.