Jake Tapper admits it’s ‘fair’ for conservatives to bash him over past coverage of Biden following bombshell book

CNN anchor Jake Tapper conceded on Wednesday that some of the criticism he’s received lately from conservatives over his blockbuster book on Joe Biden’s decline is “fair,” claiming that while he did “cover some of these issues” during Biden’s presidency, it was “not enough.”

Ahead of this month’s release of Original Sin, a book Tapper co-authored with Axios correspondent Alex Thompson on the “cover-up” of the former president’s cognitive and physical deterioration and “disastrous” decision to run again, a number of juicy and eye-opening excerpts have been dropped.

For instance, Tapper and Thompson reported that Biden’s aides had serious discussions about the president potentially needing to use a wheelchair if he were to win re-election, noting that his physical decline had “become so severe” during the second half of his term. “Given Biden’s age, [his physician Kevin O’Connor] also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery,” the book noted.

Additionally, the forthcoming book – which featured interviews with roughly 200 Democratic insiders following the 2024 election – claims that Biden didn’t recognize actor George Clooney during a Democratic fundraiser, former President Barack Obama rescued Biden numerous times during that same fundraiser, and a top aide had to shield the president from his own staff.

“We got so screwed by Biden, as a party,” Kamala Harris campaign adviser David Plouffe said. “It’s all Biden. He totally f*cked us.”

With Tapper making the media rounds to discuss the bombshell revelations in the book, right-wing media figures have labeled the veteran anchor a “hypocrite” who is trying to “rewrite history” in order to “profit” from writing about Biden’s decline. In their view, Tapper was part of the “cover-up” in hiding the truth about the former president’s deteriorating fitness ahead of the 2024 election.

“It is just patently insulting that Jake Tapper is trying to rewrite history while lining his own pockets in the process. He was very much a part of the media cabal who defended Biden,” Fox News’ media critic groused this week.

CNN anchor John Berman brought up the cries of hypocrisy coming from MAGA critics during a sitdown with Tapper to discuss the book on Wednesday morning.

“So, Jake, you’ve been at this journalism business for a long time, and you know that whenever you go out on a limb like you are right now, you get criticism from a whole lot of people. What do you think of conservatives now criticizing you and the media in general for how President Biden was covered during his administration?” Nerman wondered.

“I think some of the criticism is fair, to be honest,” Tapper responded. “Of me, I’m certainly 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.”

He went on to say that throughout his reporting for the book, he learned that starting around 2019, there were “two Bidens.” On one hand, you had the president who “was perfectly workable, serviceable and seemed fine.” Meanwhile, you had another Biden who was “non-functioning” and couldn’t remember the names of his top aides while losing his train of thought at an alarming rate.

“And that non-functioning Biden reared his head increasingly over and over. It really seemed to exacerbate and get much worse in 2023 and 2024,” Tapper added.

In the end, though, Tapper pointed out that it was the severity of Biden’s decline behind the scenes and the efforts by much of his staff to hide that fact from the American public that is the real story here.

“What we learned stunned us, shocked us. And look, while it was very important and I’m not dismissing the coverage of Biden tripping on stage or falling off his bike, that was obviously indicative of something serious that was going on,” he said.

“I think what we learned about the non-functioning Biden rearing his head – increasingly not being able to come up with the name of George Clooney, not being able to come up with the name of top aides in the White House – I think that really reveals something even more significant, something even more disturbing about a president that was not what we, the American people, should expect,” Tapper concluded.

Both CNN and Tapper’s publisher Penguin Press have pushed back on right-wing media for accusing the CNN anchor of not addressing Biden’s age and mental acuity during the former president’s time in office. In response to a Fox News Digital article that dissected Tapper’s coverage of Biden’s cognitive fitness, a CNN spokesperson took aim at the “bad faith allegations” against the journalist.

“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,” the spokesperson told Fox News.

“Despite bad faith allegations otherwise, the record clearly shows Jake covered the Clooney op-ed, the Hur report, and Biden physical limitations,” the spokesperson added. “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.”