The Wall Street Journal editorial board called out CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday for previously dismissing the paper’s June 2024 article about former President Joe Biden showing “signs of slipping.” The criticism comes as Tapper’s new book on Biden’s decline while in office is set to be released.
“The Wall Street Journal reported, in a detailed piece on June 4, 2024, that those who observed Mr. Biden in person were concerned about his decline. Mr. Tapper quoted a White House dismissal of the story, including a sneer that the Journal is ‘owned by News Corp, which is run by the Murdochs,’ as if that rebutted the story. He then interviewed a Democrat who dismissed it,” the paper’s editorial board wrote, recalling a segment from Tapper’s CNN show, “The Lead,” from last year.
“A more curious journalist would have explored if it were true, and maybe even done some of his own reporting. Only now does he tacitly admit the Journal was right,” the board added.
The Journal reported at the time that the president was showing “signs of slipping,” as its reporters spoke to 45 lawmakers and administration officials about Biden’s mental faculties. 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,” will be released on Tuesday.
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“The Biden senility coverup is also a media reckoning. Whenever someone dared to point out that Mr. Biden wasn’t up to the job, a praetorian media guard assembled to deny it. We could quote chapter and verse from many media sources, but one example worth citing is none other than Mr. Tapper. Grabien, the TV clip service, has compiled a montage of the CNN host casting doubt on those who cast doubt on Mr. Biden’s mental fitness,” the WSJ editors wrote.
In June 2024, weeks before the debate that exposed Biden’s cognitive decline on the world stage, Tapper addressed the Wall Street Journal’s report, which at the time faced intense backlash from Democrats and the liberal media.
Tapper kept his focus on the White House’s aggressive response to the “false” claims made in the report and repeatedly told viewers the report was “mostly based on observations of Republicans.” He had a top Biden surrogate, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., on to defend the president and attempt to discredit the reporting as agenda-driven.
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A spokesperson for CNN strongly pushed back at the notion that Tapper offered insufficient coverage of the Biden scandal before the debate.
“Jake Tapper is a veteran journalist whose tenacious and thorough reporting has held those in power to account on both sides of the aisle for decades,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital last week.
“He fairly and accurately covered Senator, Vice President and President Biden through years of dogged Washington reporting, hitting every high and low of the former president’s political career. From the campaign in 2020 to 2024 when he dropped out, Jake raised concerns about President Biden’s mental stamina on his shows, questioned Biden officials directly about his health on air, and consistently encouraged open discussion and debate on the issue.”
“Despite bad faith allegations otherwise, the record clearly shows Jake covered the Clooney op-ed, the Hur report, and Biden physical limitations. As noted, Jake also covered Biden’s physical falls multiple times, and he happened to be on assignment in Chicago off air the day after his bike fall in June 2022,” the spokesperson added.
Regarding the WSJ editorial, on Monday CNN directed Fox News Digital to a Friday social media post by the network’s communications team suggesting the Grabien video montage cited by the Journal took Tapper’s comments out of context. The X post read in part: “This video is disingenuously edited to create a misleading narrative. The clips are maliciously cut to omit context and make comments made by others appear as though they are Jake’s own.”
The Journal called out the Democratic Party as well, as some leaders admit the president shouldn’t have run for re-election, and others insist on looking forward.
“The coverup of Mr. Biden’s mental decline will go down as one of the great scandals of modern politics. By refusing to admit what voters could so clearly see, Democrats denied their party an open primary. Once Mr. Biden imploded, they handed Kamala Harris the nomination without debate,” the editors wrote.
“Democrats and the press are now appalled by Mr. Trump’s second term. They would do better to think upon, and seek contrition for, their own role in making it possible,” they continued.
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Biden was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer on Friday, according to the former president’s office. The diagnosis was revealed to the public on Sunday.
The Journal editorial board included an editor’s note at the top of the article acknowledging the former president’s cancer diagnosis that reads, “This editorial was published before news broke of President Biden’s cancer diagnosis. We wish him God speed on his recovery.”
Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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