Jake Tapper, a CNN anchor and veteran political journalist, says that he wishes he had been more aggressive in trying to find out what was going on behind the scenes with then-president Joe Biden.Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
A year ago Monday, Joe Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed Kamala Harris to take his place atop the Democratic presidential ticket. The move followed weeks of mounting pressure from party grandees after Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump raised questions about the octogenarian’s cognitive decline.
In the book Original Sin, released this past spring, authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson revealed that the moment was only the culmination of worsening mental acuity during the latter half of Mr. Biden’s presidency. White House advisers, they reported, engaged in a “cover-up” to hide his troubles from voters.
Speaking with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Tapper, a CNN anchor and veteran political journalist, reflected on how such a situation could happen in the world’s most scrutinized political office, the effect of Mr. Biden’s decline on his governance, and the criticism the Washington press corps has taken from both sides in the aftermath.
He also delivered one piece of good news for Canadians: In his view, Westminster systems such as Canada’s – with their traditions of Question Period and caucus politics – would not allow a situation such as Mr. Biden’s to occur.
Book Review: Original Sin details Biden’s declining health and a cover-up by closest advisers
On criticisms of the media, and whether reporters failed to push hard enough to uncover evidence of Mr. Biden’s cognitive problems:
Knowing then what I know now, I wish I had been more aggressive in trying to find out what was going on behind the scenes. It’s difficult to report on that if sources won’t communicate it, and that was one of the problems that people in the news media had, that people weren’t talking. The Biden people made the argument that if you’re hurting Biden, you’re helping Trump. So people kept their mouths shut, Democrats kept their mouths shut.
On whether journalists are now failing to report on potential problems with Mr. Trump’s mental acuity:
I agree that there are plenty of people asking questions about President Trump. And I don’t think it’s true that the media didn’t cover that. It’s less an issue of people thinking that President Trump has some sort of cognitive decline, it’s more people questioning whether or not he has some sort of personality disorder. I certainly think that that has been covered thoroughly.
Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson was released this past spring.ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
On the moment he realized something serious might be going on with Mr. Biden – February of 2024, when special counsel Robert Hur, in his investigation of the then-president’s handling of classified documents, revealed that Mr. Biden had become confused about key dates in his life while Mr. Hur was interviewing him:
I’ve been covering Biden since 2001, so obviously I have seen him age quite a bit. There were moments throughout the 2020 campaign when it was obvious that he was aging. But I would distinguish between aging and having cognitive issues, because they are not the same thing. This was a guy who, already in his prime, was prone to long, rambling stories, and gaffes, could be short-tempered.
The Hur report was a very significant moment. He was providing the very first unfettered view of what Biden was like behind the scenes. And it was disturbing.
Even having read that, and the transcript of the interviews, I was still stunned by the debate. The debate was the real moment that I thought to myself, “Okay, something is really, seriously going wrong behind the scenes here, and they have been lying to us and covering it up.”
On how Mr. Biden’s decline affected his governing:
You have Senator Mark Warner talking to President Biden in October of 2023 about the release of detainees from [Guantanamo Bay], and Warner is concerned that Biden doesn’t seem to really have a grasp on what they are talking about. In June, 2024, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado goes to an immigration event where Biden seems to be struggling and, afterwards, comes to the conclusion that Biden’s issues are one of the reasons why immigration policy in the country is such a mess.
We have cabinet secretaries in our book saying that Biden could not be relied upon to handle the 2 a.m. phone call for a national-security emergency. And thank God one never happened. But what if one had? What would have happened? It’s terrifying.
Robyn Urback: Joe Biden’s personal tragedy is also America’s betrayal
On how a situation like this can occur, how it could be avoided, and the Canadian context:
It’s still going on, just at a much lower level. There are more members of Congress 70 and above than ever before in this nation’s history, and there are questions about the ability of some of them to do the job. But still, because it’s an uncomfortable conversation to have, it’s considered rude for reporters, or anyone, to bring up.
Presidents are very cut off from the American people. Bill Clinton once referred to the White House as the crown jewel of the American prison system. And then a lot of politicians surround themselves with yes-men and yes-women and people who are not there to tell you ugly truths but to tell you how to get through the day.
One of the problems we have is that political parties have never been weaker. And we have an increasingly weak legislative branch, so we can’t rely on them either. So, really, it comes down to voters and reporters. Voters need to be aggressive in rewarding politicians who tell the truth, and reporters need to continue to remember that we’re not here to be friends with politicians. We’re not here to win accolades from partisans on social media. We’re here to ask tough questions.
This could not ever happen in Canada, because the party wouldn’t let it happen. Whoever is next in line behind the prime minister would rally the other members of the party and say, “We can’t do this any more, this is crazy, let’s figure something out.”
This interview has been condensed and edited.
