ISTANBUL

Former US President Joe Biden's staff staged Cabinet meetings and used multiple cameras to cover up his mistakes, according to a new book.

The upcoming book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson, reveals that Biden’s team took steps to mask signs of his cognitive decline, including plans for the possibility of him using a wheelchair if reelected, The Hill reported on Monday.

The authors also noted that Biden grew more dependent on teleprompters and note cards, even during internal meetings such as those with his Cabinet.

“Before these meetings, White House staff called the various departments and agencies to figure out what they were going to ask the president so that answers could be prepared. The conversations were largely scripted, even after the press had left the room,” the authors wrote.

Tapper and Thompson conducted anonymous interviews with four Cabinet secretaries, one of whom said the meetings "were terrible" and "so scripted" from the start, with Biden absent.

Some aides said Cabinet meetings were formal and slow, with Biden more interested in smaller groups. They did not mind his use of note cards or occasional shaky speeches.

When asked to record a five-minute speech, the White House typically aimed for one to two minutes, but Biden struggled, according to Tapper and Thompson's book. To deal with this, aides used two cameras to make jump cuts less noticeable.

"Other politicians use jump cuts, but Biden aides noted to themselves how much more often they had to use them for the president," the daily quoted from the book.

The book’s upcoming release coincides with a difficult period for Biden, highlighted by his recent diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones.