Mark Halperin:
Next up, my reported monologue—hopefully entertaining to you, but also breaking through to anybody from the media who’s watching. It’s amazing to me how the conspiracy continues to deny what happened, pretending something else happened, and the long-running effort by Democrats colluding with the media attempting to cover up Joe Biden’s loss of mental acuity. There’s now a battle to define Biden’s legacy, hold Democrats accountable, and to ask people running for president in 2028 or considering it what they knew. That’s important, but as a professional journalist, my focus is to get people to admit what happened, figure out how it happened, and ensure it doesn’t happen again.
This Hugh Hewitt interview is unfortunately a perfect example of that ongoing cover-up of the media’s role. Then later, my privilege and delight to have Brit Hume here to discuss all manner of things.
Why am I returning to the media’s role in attempting to cover up Joe Biden’s mental acuity loss? Because there’s been a long-running cover-up where media and Democrats suppressed the truth. Now, they’re trying to suppress their role in it. The media hasn’t admitted their part, first creating a fiction that Biden was fine, and now pretending the Biden circle hid Biden’s decline from them.
Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson claim their book revealed the truth—that Democrats privately saw Biden’s decline as early as 2023 but didn’t speak up, and the media couldn’t know because it was secret. That’s fiction. Everyone saw it publicly for years; the media ignored it due to bias against Trump and pressure from the Biden White House.
Hugh Hewitt interviewed Tapper and Thompson about their book. Hugh’s usually great, but in this case, he allowed them to continue this false narrative uninterrupted. Hugh said hundreds of people saw Biden’s infirmity privately—no, millions saw it publicly. When Biden talked to a dead congresswoman in 2022, everyone saw it, yet the media said nothing meaningful.
Hugh Hewitt (to Jake Tapper):
At a September 20th, 2023 event, what happened? Michael Shear from the New York Times was there. Hundreds knew Biden had fallen into infirmity. Is that fair?
Jake Tapper:
It’s fair. In late 2023 and early 2024, hundreds saw moments causing concern. But your larger point—that hundreds saw what we saw debate night behind the scenes and didn’t speak out—is true.
Mark Halperin:
That makes me crazy. Millions saw it publicly. The media, including Tapper, saw it publicly but remained silent. Special counsel Robert Hur described Biden as elderly with poor memory, declining to indict him. Tapper and CNN criticized Hur at the time but now pretend no one could have known.
Hugh Hewitt:
Hundreds knew but didn’t defend Hur’s assessment.
Mark Halperin:
Again, millions saw it. Yet Hugh helped the myth that no one knew.
Alex Thompson:
Democrats had incentives not to speak out. Donors didn’t want Biden’s backlash. Democratic leaders feared they’d be driven out like Dean Phillips. Democrats believe Trump is an existential threat, rationalizing putting someone they know isn’t capable into office.
Mark Halperin:
That’s exactly true about the media, too. Yet the authors refuse to hold the media accountable.
Jake Tapper:
Our reporting suggests Biden’s infirmity was visible as early as 2015 after Beau’s death, initially mistaken for grief but later seen as cognitive decline that worsened significantly by 2023.
Mark Halperin:
This contradiction—claiming it started years ago but simultaneously saying nobody could know—is outrageous. Hugh admits conservatives saw Biden’s decline publicly early on, yet still says it’s astonishing nobody knew until the debate. It doesn’t add up.
Hugh Hewitt:
My father-in-law had Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, so I recognized Biden’s decline early. I’m astonished we didn’t find out until the debate.
Mark Halperin:
Again, Hugh knew well before. He contradicts himself. Hugh also asks why conservatives like him, who pointed out Biden’s decline publicly, weren’t quoted in the book.
Alex Thompson:
Mainly, the book got too long. Also, we aimed to show behind-the-scenes events, not public observations.
Mark Halperin:
Excluding public evidence is exactly the problem—pretending Biden’s decline was a secret. Everyone saw it publicly. The book ignores liberal media bias. Tapper knows bias exists but argues Trump uniquely drove media bias.
Jake Tapper:
Trump adds extra motivation. There is a difference between factual reporting and observation-based commentary. We focused on proof, not commentary.
Mark Halperin:
Nonsense. They relied on Democrats who weren’t doctors, making observational judgments, same as conservatives did publicly. Hugh and the authors call it a conspiracy of silence among Democrats but omit the media’s identical complicity.
Jake Tapper:
There was an unbelievable conspiracy of silence among Democrats who saw Biden’s decline and said nothing.
Mark Halperin:
Exactly. But also among the press, whose silence aimed at preventing Trump’s victory. The media acted just like Democrats, ignoring obvious evidence to serve political purposes. Hugh aiding this fiction deeply frustrates me. The press betrayed public trust through a massive institutional failure. I urge you to reflect on this honestly—it’s outrageous they deny bias when their bias led to dangerous decisions affecting our democracy.