On the latest installment of CNN State of the Union, an unrepentant Jake Tapper devoted a segment to promoting his upcoming Original Sin, co-written with Alex Thompson of Axios. The promotional segment makes clear, however, that Tapper appears unwilling to take personal responsibility for his own role, and that of the broader media, in perpetrating the biggest political fraud upon the American people: the concealment of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
Instead, Tapper shifts blame to the Democrats who, in his words, “paved the way for that which they feared the most.”
JAKE TAPPER: And a small, secretive group of advisers kept his worried Cabinet in the dark. The presidency requires someone who can perform at 2:00 a.m. during an emergency. Cabinet secretaries in his own administration told us that, by 2024, President Biden could not be relied upon for that. And yet, until the debate and even weeks after, those in power stayed quiet. They were convinced that they were saving the country from the existential threat of Donald Trump, as they saw it, and that only Biden could beat Trump. But, instead, what they did was they paved the way for that which they feared the most. Indeed, for those who tried to justify the behavior described in our book because of the threat of a second Trump term, those fears should have shocked them into reality, not away from it.
If Tapper delivered this sanctimonious editorial on the advice of crisis communications counsel, then he may want to consider demanding a refund. In the face of withering criticism from all sides of the aisle, Tapper remains unwilling to consider the role that media had in stifling any questioning of Biden’s cognitive decline, which was evident to anyone with two eyes and half a brain well before the 2020 election.
Recall Tapper tearing at Lara Trump for daring to raise the specter of a diminished Biden:
Seems like a good time to remind everyone that in 2020 Jake Tapper, first, accused me of making fun of people with a stutter (an atrocious accusation) and then attempted to shut me down and ended our interview when I tried to warn people of Joe Biden’s very obvious cognitive… pic.twitter.com/ZOxSGQP13J
— Lara Trump (@LaraLeaTrump) June 27, 2024
No matter how much Tapper may want to distract otherwise, and no matter how much elected Democrats may want to talk about turning the page, the real “original sin” remains the media’s unwillingness to report on what everyone else saw as plain as day, going back to 2019.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN State of the Union on Sunday, May 18th, 2025:
JAKE TAPPER: Welcome back to State of the Union. Right around the time that the 2024 election was called for Donald Trump, I started working with Axios' Alex Thompson, whose reporting on President Biden I admired. And I made a pitch to him. He and I should start working on a project to explain what just happened and how President Trump, who was not particularly popular at the time, got elected again in a commanding victory. According to the top Democrats that we spoke with at the time, the reason for this was clear. The stunning election result traced back to the original sin of the 2024 election, President Biden's decision to run for reelection, even though he would be theoretically 86 years old at the end of his second term, and was showing every day of it. And the result is our new book, "Original Sin," which comes out on Tuesday. Our goal with the book was simple, to present the disturbing reality of what happened in the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign in 2023-2024, as told to us by more than 200 people, including lawmakers, White House and campaign insiders, some of whom may never publicly acknowledge speaking to us, but all of whom know the truth within the pages of the book, basically, how this guy became this guy. What we learned was going on behind the scenes stunned us. Some people were willing to go on the record. David Plouffe, who ran the Obama and Harris campaigns, did not hold back -- quote -- "We got so screwed by Biden as a party," Plouffe told us, "referring to Biden's decision to run for reelection, then wait more than three weeks to bow out. Plouffe added: "He totally effed us." Others, of course, remained publicly silent, despite the entire world seeing what had gone very, very wrong during the debate on June 27. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I have been able to do with the -- with the COVID. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: What we saw that night wasn't a cold. It wasn't somebody underprepared or overprepared. It was the logical result of a president who had been deteriorating for years, most precipitously declining in 2023 and 2024, a president who had began his term telling voters to watch him if they had questions about his age. By the end, his aides and his doctor were even privately discussing whether or not he would need to be in a wheelchair after the election. And a small, secretive group of advisers kept his worried Cabinet in the dark. The presidency requires someone who can perform at 2:00 a.m. during an emergency. Cabinet secretaries in his own administration told us that, by 2024, President Biden could not be relied upon for that. And yet, until the debate and even weeks after, those in power stayed quiet. They were convinced that they were saving the country from the existential threat of Donald Trump, as they saw it, and that only Biden could beat Trump. But, instead, what they did was they paved the way for that which they feared the most. Indeed, for those who tried to justify the behavior described in our book because of the threat of a second Trump term, those fears should have shocked them into reality, not away from it. In a statement to CNN, a Biden spokesman criticized the book, saying -- quote -- "We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite. He was a very effective president" -- unquote. To that, I say, read the book and you will see examples of that. But, regardless, Democrats are now in the wilderness and they are trying to figure out how to regain the trust of the American people. Months after Biden's debacle and Harris' loss, they're torn between trying to appeal to base voters focused on Trump, who don't want to hear any criticism of Biden, and those who are angry about what the Bidens did. It's a real tightrope. Here's what top Democrats in Congress had to say this week when asked about what we uncovered in our book.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: House Democrats have been very clear we're moving forward. We're not looking backward.
CHUCK SCHUMER: We're looking forward.
KASIE HUNT: That's it?
SCHUMER: That's it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And here are two prominent Democratic governors positioning themselves for a run in 2028 asked about whether they knew about Biden's decline.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRITZKER: I saw him a few times. I certainly went to the White House. To the extent people are now saying, well, we thought about whether he should have a wheelchair, I never heard any of that. I never saw any of that.
WHITMER: As a governor at a state halfway across the country who was working her tail off, I was busy working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: As Politico's Adam Wren and Holly Otterbein write, quote: "Some Democrats argue that their leaders aren't owning up to the truth about Biden and risk keeping the issue alive indefinitely as a result. They fear that Democrats' record low approval ratings are tied in part to their unwillingness to come clean", unquote. So, the big question, how long will Democratic leaders be able to walk this line? The book comes out Tuesday. You will not believe what we found out.
