Former Biden spokesperson helping lead PR for Tapper-Thompson book on Biden's decline

23 May 2025 By foxnews

FIRST ON FOX- A career Democratic operative and ex-Biden communications flack is helping handle public relations for a new book about the former president's decline while in office.

CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson's new book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," was released on Tuesday and has generated considerable publicity. It details Joe Biden's mental acuity concerns while in office, accusing the Biden White House of hiding the truth about his fitness for office.

Tapper and Thompson retained the crisis management firm Heller to help handle public relations for the book - which has generated significant coverage and criticism - and interested reporters have been directed to send questions to Heller senior vice president Nate Evans, a veteran Democratic communications aide.

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Evans, who joined Heller after Biden left office five months ago, spent nearly three years working at a New York-based role for the State Department during Biden's presidency, according to his LinkedIn.

Before that, Evans served as a senior White House communications advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris from September through December 2024 after she replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee. He also held various roles in Sen. Amy Klobuchar's, D-Minn., office, and he served as a communications director for the Biden campaign in Wisconsin in 2020, according to his LinkedIn page.

The roles Evans occupied would have "little-to-no face time" with Biden, a source familiar with Biden administration staffing told Fox News Digital.

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He also worked for Harris' first presidential campaign in 2019, worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and also served in the Obama White House.

Evans' personal X account noted that he was a spokesperson for both Harris and Biden until Thursday afternoon. The bio section was scrubbed shortly after Fox News Digital inquired about his past work.

Evans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Risa Heller, the founder and CEO of the firm, previously served as communications director for Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., from 2005 to 2007, according to her LinkedIn.

The book features startling behind-the-scenes coverage of Biden's mental decline in office that worried many Democrats who failed to speak out at the time. Conservatives, however, have pilloried the book as coming too late to the same conclusion they did before Biden's debate performance laid bare his cognitive deficiencies.

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Tapper has acknowledged "humility" about his past coverage of Biden during multiple stops on his promotional book tour.

"I think some of the criticism is fair, to be honest," Tapper told CNN last week as he was pressed on the criticisms of himself and the book. "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 didn't respond to a request for comment.

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Fox News Digital's Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.