CNN anchor Jake Tapper appeared Tuesday on The Megyn Kelly Show to discuss his new book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, co-authored with Axios reporter Alex Thompson.
Tapper acknowledged that he and other legacy media outlets, including CNN, did not sufficiently cover Biden’s mental and physical decline. He expressed “tremendous humility” about his coverage, admitting that conservative media had been more proactive in highlighting these concerns.
He specifically referenced a 2020 interview with Lara Trump, where he had dismissed her claims about Biden’s cognitive decline, mistakenly attributing Biden’s speech issues to his stutter. Tapper noted he later apologized to Lara Trump, conceding she was correct.
During a 2022 interview with Biden, Tapper failed to press him on incidents like Biden mentioning a deceased colleague, Jackie Walorski, despite Kelly pointing out there was an opportunity to address Biden’s mental acuity directly. Tapper admitted, “That’s correct, I didn’t.”
Kelly challenged Tapper on his role in allegedly “running cover” for Biden, accusing him of not addressing Biden’s mental acuity despite covering his presidency aggressively. She highlighted specific instances, like Biden’s promise to be transparent about his health records in 2020, which he did not fulfill, and Tapper’s failure to follow up in subsequent interviews.
Kelly pressed Tapper on why he and other mainstream journalists were late to report on Biden’s decline, which she argued was evident to conservative pundits and the public. She framed the book as a belated acknowledgment of what others had observed for years.
🚨NEW: Megyn Kelly calls out CNN’s Jake Tapper to his face for refusing to seriously report on Biden's mental decline until after the election.
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) May 20, 2025
Tapper says he is "humiliated" by his coverage. pic.twitter.com/TkvdAPGAee
The book details how Biden’s aides discussed accommodating his physical limitations, including the possibility of using a wheelchair for a second term, underscoring the extent of his deterioration.
The interview coincided with the release of Original Sin on May 20, 2025, and Biden’s announcement of a stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis the previous day. Kelly questioned the timing, suggesting it was an attempt by Democratic elites to suppress discussion of the book’s revelations about Biden’s health cover-up.
No comments:
Post a Comment