Jake Tapper backtracks lead to Biden’s controversial last days

Jake Tapper is having a bad week.  

While his comments in recent days certainly seem to indicate he may be seeing the light, what he may actually see is the illuminating glow of his pants being on fire. 

The veteran CNN reporter and host is doing his best to clear the air over what he describes in his newly released book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again", as a massive cover up of the former President's cognitive decline in office. A cover up that he and his co-author, Alex Thompson of Axios, also suggest was aided by an all-too-willing mainstream media that refused to believe, or report on, what it was seeing in real time. 

But do not take the word of Augusta's (admittedly partisan) conservative radio talk show host and columnist. Instead, consider a sample of quotes from his own press tour. Ironically, each of these quotes are from outlets known for their left-wing bias. 

"Looking back now, Tapper says he regrets not covering Biden's decline more aggressively. "I can point to times where I asked him this or I asked them that... but knowing what I know now, I barely scratched the surface," he says. "I need to run more towards the discomfort of questions about health because they're so important and they're so under-covered in Washington." 

Jeffrey Goldberg: "So, is this when you realized that the White House was lying to the public, lying to the media about Joe Biden's condition, or was this - I'm wondering how you moved cognitively through the stages here. Did you immediately think to yourself, oh my God, I've been lied to, or, wow, he's having a really bad night?" 

Jake Tapper: "I thought that they had been misrepresenting his acuity for a little bit then at that point, like - and our reporting suggests that he really started to deteriorate in the summer and fall of 2023. 

I didn't see him all that often and I didn't know how bad it was, but it seemed odd in retrospect. I mean, I asked people about it and I heard what I'm sure you heard, what I'm sure Alex heard, which is, he's fine, he's fine, he's fine. He's 81, of course, he's elderly, but he's great. You know, his decision-making is solid, he's great in meanings, blah, blah, blah. 

And I didn't believe them, but I didn't have any evidence to report that they were lying. When he came out and he could not deliver what any politician should be able to do, a 90-minute debate, discussing why you should be elected." 

Jake Tapper: "I don't like what the Democrats did when it came to Joe Biden and hiding the limitations of his abilities. 

I do think that Democrats, obviously their approval ratings are in the toilet. 

And I think that one of the reasons they are is because Democrats just spent four years arguing that the border was fine, inflation was not a problem, and Joe Biden was up to the job. And I think that four years of that message was really harmful. I think there are other reasons, too, why Democrats have damaged themselves, not just Democrats, by the way, but institutions in general, the media, health organizations, universities, etc. 
It's having to do with the failure to acknowledge certain realities, whether it's having to do with riots after the George Floyd murder, or having to do with COVID restrictions, shutting down schools, and on and on and on and on. I think there are a lot of reasons why there are crises in confidence in the news media, in the Democratic Party, in institutions. And I think all of it needs to be hashed out, acknowledged, and discussed." 

Hope you folks took special care to digest the last paragraph. I am thinking about getting it engraved in stone and put on display somewhere. Tapper's opened eyes (think newborn kittens) are apparently showing him some harsh realities that he and many in mainstream media have spent their entire careers denying. 

Tapper's philosophical and journalistic rebirth, as dramatic as it may be, certainly isn't an isolated evolution. We have been watching veteran progressive television host and comedian Bill Maher deal with many of these same issues for the last few years. Now we can add Stephen A. Smith to the mix. Keep in mind, none of these three gentlemen have been reborn as neo-cons, or even the better-known and socially acceptable, Reagan Democrats. No, what they have become are disgusted and disillusioned professional communicators who are calling out the unprofessional and unethical liars and charlatans who have been disguising themselves as journalists for the past 30 years. 

It's about time, too.