Former President Biden’s health decline had been an obvious issue throughout his presidential term, but more concerns have been raised for why the media didn’t cover it enough. Piers Morgan Uncensored hosted a show inviting a panel of political and academic credits to debate which presidential scandal was worse: Biden’s cover-up for his health or Nixon’s Watergate scandal. One of the guests was former NBC political director Chuck Todd, who took the blame off the media to wipe their hands clean and put it in the hands of the Democrat Party.
The motivation behind the debate was CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson’s book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. When Morgan asked the former Meet the Press host, to weigh in on the debate, Todd stated:
To me, the scandal is the Democratic Party and the staff because you know who was screaming at the top of their lungs that they wanted different choices for presidents, the voters. They were ignoring the polling. They were ignoring what voters were actually saying, you know, to me that was the original sin of this mess. But to equate it, look, I actually think the worst scandal of any president is, is what is Teapot Dome and Harding, although we, we may yet have any something that rivals both Watergate and Teapot Dome when this crypto thing collapses on the Trump family, but for now I'm not ready to say it's Watergate, but inside the Democratic Party, biggest scandal in their history, arguably in the modern era.
There were many pieces to the puzzle that point to the White House for covering up Biden’s health decline, but why not talk about the liberal media’s contribution?
Morgan challenged Todd to bring up the avoidance of the left-wing media when he mentions that platforms, “massively dropped the ball with this,” adding to the contribution of videos of the former president falling on steps, losing concentration in interviews, and struggling to finish sentences.
Jefferson Morley, former Washington Post journalist and editor of the JFK Facts on Substack, added to the debate with the view of pointing the fingers at the press instead of the White House relating back to Watergate claiming “the press distinguished itself in Watergate and the press did not distinguish itself in this.”
To Jefferson, this question was not a gray area when it covered the press since Watergate was engulfed with the media, but he sparked the flame challenging the liberal press that looks like “a bigger scandal than Watergate.”
Todd went more into depth with his support for putting the cover-up on the White House expressing:
So this is a party that had a leadership atrophy and at the same time those that were sort of almost behaving like the old Soviet Union, which is, you know, the leader dies and everybody wants to keep their power and keep their influence. So I do think this scandal should be more laser focused on the Democratic Party. I think the press is again, I always look at the criticism of the press here. Um through the person that's making the criticism and I think in some ways there's a, there's almost an eagerness to blame the press without looking at actually who should be blamed here and it's the leadership and frankly the members of the Biden administration and the leadership of the Democratic Party who they're the ones that lied. Look, at the end of the day, no journalist is as good as their sources. The end of the day, the Democratic Party lied to the American people. The leadership of the party lied to the American people, and that's where the scandal should be centered.
Here’s the catch: Morgan acknowledged the liberal media did not carry their weight for covering Biden’s health declines. He added that if the roles were reversed and if the health decline was happening to Trump, there would be a fervor that didn’t exist with Biden:
One of the reasons is that there clearly has been an inherent bias against Trump and pro pretty much anyone that might stop him pervading through the mainstream media, so there wasn't the intent perhaps to go looking for the real story as there might have been had it been Trump.
It’s worth noting that Trump did have the energy to do long rallies, speeches, interviews, and travels and was not showing serious signs of a health decline as Biden. So why was Todd putting the blame only on the White House and sparing the liberal media that acted like he was normal when there are viral videos proving he should not have tried for a second term because of his health.
Click here for the full transcript:
Piers Morgan Uncensored
5/30/25
PIERS MORGAN: The presidential scandal on many sides is the biggest in United States history, Richard Nixon's role in the infamous Watergate break-ins. However, the shocking details revealed in Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's new book on President Biden's cognitive decline whilst in office and the conspiracy to cover it all up, could now well rival it, or as I believe, even worse. Here's what Tapper himself said when I pressed him on it on Uncensored.
JAKE TAPPER: It is a scandal. It is without question and maybe even worse than Watergate in some ways, um, because Richard Nixon was in control of his faculties when he wasn't drinking.
MORGAN: Well, in this special edition of Uncensored, we've assembled some real political, academic and media heavyweights to debate the question, Biden or Nixon, who scandalized the US presidency more?
(…)
Chuck Todd, let me start with you. You've covered a lot of scandals in your time, a lot of presidencies in your time. I was genuinely fascinated when I pressed Jake Tapper, because there's a line at the end of the book, I'm sure you've read it, where they, they talk about this is not a Watergate. And they, they kind of leave it floating as whether they think it's better or worse. Jake actually conceded to me that actually he thinks it probably is worse. What is your view?
CHUCK TODD: Well, I think we have to have proof that there was a belief of cognitive decline and intentional cover up, right? We're still not there. There's certainly plenty of evidence that he wasn't really up to doing the job, that he was going to struggle to have a second term, that his behavior in the first term was indicative of somebody that couldn't handle the modern rigors of the presidency. So if you look at the damage Donald Trump is doing to our current economy or the current relationships around the world, uh, do you hold Biden accountable for that?
I know plenty of Democrats who do, right? So it's almost like every piece of bad information. That or bad decision making that Donald Trump makes only ratchets up the anger among some on the left at Joe Biden and his family's selfishness, but more importantly, the staff around, right?
To me, the scandal is the Democratic Party and the staff because you know who was screaming at the top of their lungs that they wanted different choices for presidents, the voters. They were ignoring the polling. They were ignoring what voters were actually saying, you know, to me that was the original sin of this mess.
But to equate it, look, I actually think the worst scandal of any president is, is what is Teapot Dome and Harding, although we, we may yet have any something that rivals both Watergate and Teapot Dome when this crypto thing collapses on the Trump family, but for now I'm not ready to say it's Watergate, but inside the Democratic Party, biggest scandal in their history, arguably in the modern era.
MORGAN: And do you accept, Chuck, as Jake pretty much did and Alex did. The mainstream media in America, both television, cable, and newspapers and so on, just collectively massively dropped the ball with this, and that one of the reasons is that there clearly has been an inherent bias against Trump and pro pretty much anyone that might stop him pervading through the mainstream media, so there wasn't the intent perhaps to go looking for the real story as there might have been had it been Trump.
TODD: Well, look, I always try to divide it in half because I don't accept the premise that a cable host is a journalist, right? And there was one cable host in particular that would attack members of the press, attack any columnist that came out and said, Joe Biden doesn't have it, he shouldn't run again.
And so, but I accept the premise. Look, where I think the ball was dropped was the White House press corps in that building, right? That's where, you know, this is the conversation Jake and I have had, you know, and we've been in those chairs, you know, that's where you, sort of notice these things. Where's the president today? How come he's not coming to talk to us? That missing relentlessness.
And I think that, you know, I, I joke Trump derangement syndrome is something that a lot of people have, right? It's not just people that are Trump opponents that have it. Trump fans sometimes have it, right? They think there's mystical powers in in sort of Trump derangement syndrome. But I do think there are a lot of people in that Biden White House and then some in sort of the intelligentsia of the press, not the day to day journalists who were looking at like, well yeah, Biden is struggling, but Trump's crazy, so the choice is kind of impaired Biden versus crazy Trump.
So it became sort of a, it was that became the rationalization. I'm not saying it was the right rationalization, but I don't think it was like a collective cover up more than it was sort of almost human response to geez, I have a bad idea over here and a worse one over there, which do I choose?
(..)
13:39
JEFFERSON MORLEY: But Piers, maybe, maybe your question is, you know, which is the bigger scandal in terms of the president? Well, what's, which is the bigger scandal in terms of the press? You know, the press distinguished itself in Watergate and the press did not distinguish itself in this, so for the press, this is a bigger scandal than Watergate.
(...)
23:38
PIERS: But this comes in the backdrop also, Chuck, of page 85 of the book, “a long time Biden aide, he just had to win that he could disappear for 4 years, he'd only have to show proof of life every once in a while.”
I found that the most shocking thing I read in the whole book, and there were a lot of candidates. Just the fact that a long time Biden aide basically saying he could be a zombie, that we just shook into life with an electric bolt everywhere.
TODD: Look, Pierce, I'm gonna, I'm gonna defend some members of the press in this because look, I was somebody that spoke out early questioning whether this was the case. I was interviewing Dean Phillips when other people at the organization that I was at was trying to get him unbooked from the shows when he was challenging basically on the entire premise this guy's not up to the job, right? That was the entire premise of the campaign.
But let's remember – I, I really think that the attempt to make this a media scandal is usually by folks who are trying to promote their own media. This is a scandal of the Democratic Party and this is where I do think that any Democrat that served in the Biden administration, should answer for this, should have to answer for this, and I think it's gonna have a hard time answering for this.
I mean, I think this is a moment and, and what it is is you have a party that went three straight elections that they did not let their voters decide who the nominee was. The voters didn't make the decision in 16, Barack Obama did. The voters didn't make the decision in 2020, Jim Clyburn did. The voters didn't make the decision in 2024. Essentially Joe Biden did by giving, by giving the party Kamala Harris.
So this is a party that had a leadership atrophy and at the same time those that were sort of almost behaving like the old Soviet Union, which is, you know, the leader dies and everybody wants to keep their power and keep their influence. So I do think this scandal should be more laser focused on the Democratic Party.
I think the press is again, I always look at the criticism of the press here. Um through the person that's making the criticism and I think in some ways there's a, there's almost an eagerness to blame the press without looking at actual who should be blamed here and it's the leadership and frankly the members of the Biden administration and the leadership of the Democratic Party who they're the ones that lied.
Look, at the end of the day, no journalist is as good as their sources. The end of the day, the Democratic Party lied to the American people. The leadership of the party lied to the American people, and that's where the scandal should be centered.
PIERS: Yeah, I largely don't disagree with you. I, I kind of think the bigger villains are the people in the White House who obviously knew for a fact what was actually going on with Biden. I, I do think the media are culpable too, and I do think if it had been Trump, there would have been an absolute frenzy. To get to the bottom of any cognitive issues if he was face planting left, right, and center.
TODD: Is there a frenzy now though, Piers? We've got a president. If I told you a president doesn't sleep at night and instead tweets crazy stuff in the middle of the night, would you wonder if there was cognitive decline? Would you say, are they correctly covering this guy's manic behavior, because his behavior in office-
[Crosstalk]
PIERS: Don't not talk at once. I would say to that I've known Trump 20 years and he's behaved in this kind of way for the entire time I've known him in various, he used to behave like-
TODD: I’ve heard that defense for Biden, Piers. “I've known Biden 20 years. He's always been misspeaking and stuff,” so I'm just saying, well, I
[Crosstalk]
PIERS: I’m not saying there’s a difference. Here’s the difference, Chuck, I would day is that Trump makes himself always available. He's always doing two hour rally speeches. He's doing endless,huddles with the press, endless interviews. He's making himself-
TODD: But if the words are crazy, does that make it better?
PIERS: I think it's a, I think it's a different kind of thing. You could say that Trump's a bit crazy, but I don't think you see evidence of cognitive decline. There's not a lot of difference between Trump now than there was first time round in 2016-2017. To me, watching him, I just think he's the same guy.
TODD: He’s a little slower, but yeah.
