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Journalism is the first draft of history, to paraphrase a famous quote. If that’s true, journalism books are the CYA of history. Such is the case with the new book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios National Political Correspondent Alex Thompson, who try to shift the blame for coverage of President Joe Biden’s health entirely onto the White House and away from the biased news media – like CNN.
The duo is about to release their book titled, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run.” The book would be better titled, “Original Spin.” Based on early release to various news outlets, it is a whitewash of journalism’s many failures to properly cover Biden’s very public slide into incoherence.
If Helen of Troy was The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships, this book launched 1,000 takes on Twitter/X, some of them so good they should win awards. (Stephen L. Miller, aka @redsteeze, outdid them all.)
JOURNALISM’S ‘ORIGINAL SPIN’: HOW TAPPER’S BIDEN BOOK ATTEMPTS TO ABSOLVE MEDIA
But it wasn’t just Tapper, it was an entire media enterprise that hid Biden’s decline. Here are my seven favorite moments from then and now:
The Amazon description reads like it’s promoting “All the President’s Men,” not a book-long rationalization. “From two of America’s most respected journalists, an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.” And it then includes this quote from the equally culpable folks at Politico: “The book Biden allies fear the most.”
Biden allies don’t fear the book. There aren’t many left who admit they supported him. It’s the media who fear it. Because this book reminds Americans the legacy press is untrustworthy either covering the news or admitting their role in covering it up.
We’re not letting Tapper off that easy. Here’s his ego-infused PR quote in a CNN story, “Toni Morrison once said ‘If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it,’” Jake Tapper said in a statement. “That’s what inspired this book: we wanted to know more about what we all just lived through. More than 200 interviews later, Alex and I have a much better idea. And soon you all will too.”
AXIOS REPORTER PUSHES BACK ON BIDEN’S DENIAL OF MENTAL DECLINE, SAYING WHITE HOUSE INSIDERS DISAGREE
To hear Tapper and tell it, they are hard-working truth tellers in a world beset by dishonest politicians. This is the same CNN anchor who repeatedly both covered for and covered up Biden’s mental failings. And he wants a get-out-of-jail-free-card for admitting Biden isn’t mentally fit to run a hotdog stand. Or eat at one.
On February 8, 2024, Biden held a press conference to counter special counsel Robert Hur’s claim Biden was, “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The presser was epic, with the president pretending his memory was “fine.” Then he called Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi the “president of Mexico” during a presser where he spoke slowly and seemed to lose his train of thought. (Days before, he claimed he had spoken with a dead French leader.)
The media coverage was laughable. The New York Times ran with, “‘My Memory Is Fine,’ a Defiant Biden Declares After Special Counsel Report.” The Post chose, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory.” Legacy media outlets skipped the embarrassing memory lapse in headlines.
Tapper wasn’t alone running cover for Biden. There was “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, who delivered the most-embarrassing quote of the entire 2024 election: “I’ve said it for years now, he’s cogent. But I undersold it when I said he was cogent, he’s far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he’s better than he’s ever been, intellectually, analytically, because he’s been around for fifty-years,” Scarborough said. “Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And f— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.”
That was March 6, 2024. Biden’s campaign ended slightly more than four months later. There was no medical event. No rapid decline. And this came after the disastrous press conference.
When journalists didn’t like what people were saying about the president, they pretended it was based on phony videos. CNN’s Brian Stelter ran with the White House’s argument. “The White House used the phrase ‘cheap fakes,” adding, “let me explain what that is.” Now, we have Tapper saying that Biden didn’t even recognize actor George Clooney.
In June 2024, NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez did a ‘well ackually’ segment that argued Biden hadn’t wandered away from foreign leaders. “In reality, another camera angle showed the president was actually trying to greet skydivers.” He also said the right was “falsely claiming the president was meandering.” Just like the right falsely claimed a White House staffer in an Easter Bunny outfit pulled the president away from press questions.
As part of the book’s PR blitz, Tapper and Thompson co-authored a piece in The New Yorker, titled, “How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump.” Four paragraphs in, they quote Democrats who agree with their narrative. “‘We got so screwed by Biden, as a party,’ David Plouffe, who helped run the Harris campaign, told us,” they claimed. And one paragraph later, “Plouffe added, ‘He totally f—ed us.’”
The article goes on to credit actor George Clooney for writing an op-ed calling Biden to step down. The actor had attended a Biden fundraiser in June and the article gave an exchange where, “It seemed clear that the President had not recognized Clooney.” But Clooney is Tapper’s hero here. Not the legions of conservatives who complained about Biden’s failing health long before. The Clooney name gets mentioned 59 times in the piece. Fifty-nine. That’s five more times than Clooney has appeared in movies, according to IMDB.com.
Even after Biden’s debate with Donald Trump, two New York Times writers wouldn’t give in. Lydia Polgreen wrote: “No one won this debate, but there is no question who lost: anyone who plans to cast a ballot for president in November.” Jamelle Bouie agreed, “Well, we had a raspy and stumbling President Biden and a deranged and incoherent Donald Trump, who spent two hours unleashing a stream of lies. Is there a winner here? Nah.”
AP delivered one of the greatest understatements in history: “Debate-watchers in the Biden and Trump camps seem to agree on something: Biden had a bad night.”
