A longtime aide to former President Joe Biden shockingly admitted that insiders felt justified acting ‘undemocratically’ to keep the president in power because Donald Trump represented an ‘existential threat’ to democracy, a new book alleges. 

The jaw-dropping revelation came as Axios reporter Alex Thompson promoted his new book, Original Sin, co-authored with CNN ‘s Jake Tapper, about the health ‘cover-up’ surrounding Biden. During an appearance on Fox News , Thompson discussed the chilling dynamic inside Biden’s White House from insiders he spoke to.

Thompson wrote that an unelected official within the administration admitted that their hatred of Trump validated doing ‘undemocratic things.’ Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream questioned Thompson about the anecdote, asking: ‘Who would have been running the White House in a second Biden term?’ Reading aloud from the book, Bream quoted an unnamed aide as saying: ‘[Biden] just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years.

‘He’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while… His aides could pick up the slack.’ Thompson revealed that the source ‘went on to say that, when you’re voting for a president, you’re voting for the aides around him.’ The book has sent shockwaves through Washington as it delves into Biden’s decline in office.

Amid questions over who was calling the shots during the octogenarian’s presidency, the book alleges that a trio of senior political veterans worked with First Lady Jill Biden and troubled son Hunter to run the show. Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed were the core decision-makers, the book claims, adding that former senior adviser to the president Annie Tomasini and former White House chief of staff Ron Klain were also ‘at times’ part of the group.

During his Fox News appearance, Thompson said he was stunned by the unnamed insider’s argument that aides should run the White House as long as Donald Trump was not in power. ‘These aides were not even Senate-confirmed aides,’ he said. ‘These are White House aides, these were unelected people. ‘And one of the things that really I think comes out in our reporting here is that if you believe – and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy – you can rationalize anything.

‘Including sometimes doing undemocratic things, which I think is what this person is talking about.’ According to the book, both Jill and Hunter Biden were prominent and permanent fixtures within Biden’s circle of trust, despite aides and insiders partially blaming Hunter for the president’s rapid decline. ‘To understand Joe Biden’s deterioration, top aides told us, one has to know Hunter’s struggles,’ the book stated.

While promoting the book, Tapper was asked about Hunter’s role in the administration and influence over his father . Fueled by information garnered through interviews with more than 200 people for the book, Tapper responded: ‘I think Hunter was driving the decision-making for the family in a way that people – he was almost like a chief-of-staff of the family. ‘It’s bizarre because I think he is provably, demonstrably unethical, sleazy, and prone to horrible decisions,’ Tapper added.

‘After his brother died, he cheated on his wife with his brother’s widow and then got her addicted to crack. ‘That’s just one thing I could say. I mean, I don’t have a lot of personal regard for him… I barely have ever met him. I’ve met him like once or twice.’ Tapper also revealed his reaction to President Biden’s shockingly disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump last June, which ultimately led to him dropping out of the presidential race.

The CNN host, who moderated the debate, said he was so stunned by Biden’s fumbling debate that he was messaging his producers to simply say ‘holy smokes.’ However, critics argue that Tapper himself was directly involved in the cover-up he is now dissecting. During a wide-ranging interview with Megyn Kelly earlier this month, Tapper accepted that he missed the mark during Biden’s four-year term, but offered a glimpse into his shock while moderating the debate.

‘That front-row seat was really disturbing,’ he said, later describing Biden’s performance as an act of ‘self-immolation.’ Tapper revealed he and fellow moderator Dana Bash had iPads that they used to communicate with their production team throughout the debate. Early on, Tapper sent a message to his crew backstage. He didn’t know which staff members were working, so he ‘tried to keep it clean.’ ‘I wrote “holy smokes,”‘ he told Kelly. ‘I wanted to write “holy [expletive].”‘