A former CNN pundit has offered a mea culpa for shrugging off concerns about President Biden’s mental decline.
Chris Cilizza, who served as CNN’s editor-at-large before leaving the network in 2022, spoke candidly about his lack of journalistic curiosity about Biden’s condition to serve following a pair of damning reports this week from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that shed light on the president’s diminished state.
“As a reporter, I have a confession to make,” Cillizza began his “apology” on his YouTube channel Thursday. “I should have pushed harder earlier for more information about Joe Biden’s mental and physical well-being and any signs of decline.”
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Cillizza acknowledged how Republicans would “regularly ping me” during his time at CNN, asking him why he hadn’t addressed Biden’s decline and how he would “brush them off” since he had not seen “evidence” of the president’s decline.
And not only did he admit to taking the word of the White House, he conceded he felt guilty of “age shaming” Biden.
“The White House and the people around Joe Biden were absolutely adamant that suggesting anything- asking the question about whether he was in some physical, mental or both decline, was offensive. ‘How could you? It’s age shaming.’ And I think that impacted me at some level,” Cillizza said. “Because while I did ask the question from time to time… I didn’t really push on it, if I’m being honest. Now, once I left CNN and once it became a little bit more clear to me about Biden’s age, I think I did write pretty regularly and talk pretty regularly about how I wasn’t sure that this guy was up to it. And then obviously, after the June 27 debate, everybody, including me, was writing and talking about it.”
The former CNN pundit went on to read excerpts from the Journal report about Biden’s limited interactions with his own cabinet members and Democratic lawmakers, as well as the Times’ assertion finding it “hard to imagine” Biden lasting in the job for another four years.
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“I probably should’ve pushed harder on the Biden age stuff because, in retrospect, it’s clear that the people close to him knew that at best, he had some good days and some bad days. June 27, the debate clearly was a bad day. But if the bad day was that bad, as bad as he performed on that debate stage, the fact that he had been president without a whole lot of questions being asked about his physical and mental decline, and I’ll add the fact that he continued to be president from June 27 until January 20, 2025, I think is a little bit concerning and begs the question of, like, when did people near him know, what did they know, and why did they not share?” Cillizza said.
“I know journalists did ask, and I can tell you, I mean, I know from my experience, there was a shame factor that went into that. People around Biden worked to make you feel bad when you asked whether he was up to the job of being president, running for president again and serving as president for another four years. ‘How could you?’ … And they did a very good job, at least until they couldn’t hide it anymore, of hiding it,” he continued. “But journalists, and I put myself here, we should have been pushier. We should have- I should have not let the shame campaign to make you feel bad for asking the question get to me because it’s now clear from both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times piece that there was real deterioration… and significant decline in Joe Biden, and that it was being managed by the people around him. They were insulating him. They were keeping sort of the world, the political world, out, and keeping him sort of bunkered in.”
“And so I think it’s a lesson that we have to learn going forward. Because again, Donald Trump will be the oldest person ever to hold office if he serves for four years, and I will be mindful of that. Because again, asking those questions isn’t a partisan thing. Asking those questions is a journalism thing, and I should have pushed harder and not been as willing to accept the ‘Nah, he’s fine. Look at him when he’s in public’ campaign,” Cillizza added.
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Some critics took aim at Cillizza’s delayed apology. One of them, conservative podcast host Meghan McCain, drew scrutiny towards his sincerity, invoking his past commentary of her late father, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during his 2008 presidential run.
“When I say this is too little too late, I mean this is absolutely pathetically too little too late,” McCain reacted on X. “There was no bigger and more obsessive ‘McCain truther’ regarding my dad’s age when he ran in 2008 (when he was 71 mind you) than Chris. He ignored Biden because he’s a hack.”
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