On Friday's Washington Week with The Atlantic, host Jeffrey Goldberg didn't convene a panel, instead hosting his buddy Jake Tapper and his co-author Alex Thompson for the half-hour on their book Original Sin. The most shameless denial came when Goldberg suggested the media didn't cover up Biden's decline, while he completely omitted his show's infamous episode when he proclaimed President Biden was "mentally, quite acute." Mark Leibovich spat out it was "lying" to question Biden's fitness.
It happened on September 1, 2023:
LEIBOVICH: Can I just actually just point out, though, that, I mean, it’s not just making an issue of Biden’s age, it’s lying, it’s saying he’s senile, saying he’s demented, saying he’s out of it. I mean, I think it’s important to sort of state for a fact that a lot of these are just --
GOLDBERG: Right. Mentally, he’s quite acute.
A week later, Franklin Foer of The Atlantic doubled down on the same program: "So on the mental acuity part, Nikki Haley’s talked about giving a mental acuity test for presidents. I’m sure Biden would ace that test."
But now, Goldberg wants to pretend the media weren't actively denying the obvious.
PBS @WashingtonWeek with The Atlantic host @JeffreyGoldberg really said this on tonight’s show: “I don’t understand how this narrative is developed that the media was covering for Biden. I think what might be going on here is the lack of understanding about how reporting works.”… pic.twitter.com/nSHL6xifyd
— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) May 24, 2025
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Yes. You know, one of the interesting subjects here that's come out in the past week, as you guys are talking about the book, is the role of the media. I don't want to do like an extended media criticism here, especially because I'm not sure it's actually correct. You were doing reporting in 2023. You were bringing this up. There's a quote that I want to show you. It's actually -- I mean, it's not just you guys. Ezra Klein was asking questions, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. I want to show you a quote from Mark Leibovich writing in The Atlantic in June of 2022.
JAKE TAPPER: Yes, 100 percent.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: And the article is called, “Why Biden Shouldn't Run in 2024.” [Quoting] "Biden is by no means the more eloquent character he was in his younger days. It could be painful to watch him get prepared speeches. His tone could be tentative and certain sentences, can become hop-scotching journeys. His aides in the room look visibly nervous at times," and so on. I don't understand how this narrative has developed that no one in the media -- that the media was covering for Biden.
I think what might be going on here is a lack of understanding about how reporting works. In order to prove that he's diminished, you have to have people, sources inside telling you this. Give me your thoughts on this question.
Tapper brought his usual answer, that the conservative media were harping on Biden: "I think it was one Fox anchor called him Sippy -- Joe Sippy Cup Biden or whatever. They were saying things along those lines and they were making a bigger deal about doubts about his acuity than it could be said the legacy media was."
It's dramatically insulting to pretend that media critics don't understand "how reporting works" when journalists cooperated with Biden in denying what was obvious to a large majority of Americans -- that Biden wasn't fit to be president. They didn't need insider sources to tell them what people were seeing, and it's insulting to insist against the evidence that Goldberg & Co. weren't engaged in covering up and shaming the criticism.
Some reporters wrote one article questioning Biden "slipping." They deserve some credit for that. But as a whole, the legacy media -- as they often do -- circled their wagons around the Democrats. They aided them in preventing any serious primary or opposition to a mentally failing president to campaign for another four years of mental unfitness.