CNN’s Jake Tapper has begun his book tour that dives into former President Joe Biden’s decline and the attempt to cover it up. After a Wednesday appearance on CNN News Central, one media person in particular came away with a battered reputation: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. Although Tapper did not indict Kimmel, Kimmel’s reaction to the controversy in question was enough for him to indict himself.
The genesis of Kimmel's cover-up was a June 2024 Los Angeles fundraiser for Biden that featured him, actor George Clooney, and former President Barack Obama. After Tapper and host John Berman recalled Biden forgetting who Clooney was, despite knowing each other for more than two decades, Berman moved on to another part of that evening’s proceedings, “You bring up President Obama because there was a moment at that fundraiser, and that fundraiser really was a key moment for a lot of people in this history, which you so brilliantly document. But President Biden walked down to the end of the stage at this fundraiser for a moment. You can see it right there, and seemed to stare a little blankly into the crowd. And then President Obama tugged on him. You saw that tug and led him off the stage. So, you just said you spoke to a lot of people who were there for that. What else did they tell you about it?”
Tapper recalled, “Well, Obama’s side of that story is he wasn't sure what was going on, but he just wanted to get out of there, and he wasn't going to get out of there without Biden. So, he grabbed him, and it was more just his impatience than anything else. But other people who were there—and we should note that the Biden White House falsely, when people showed that clip and asked what was going on, said it was a cheap fake, they did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out of it way, they would call it a cheap fake. It was not fake. It was actual video.”
While the Clooney incident happened out of sight of the cameras, the Obama incident did not, as Tapper continued, “And people in the arena who did not see the horrifying scene behind the stage, but in the arena, Congresswoman Annie Kuster, Jon Favreau, former Obama speech chief speechwriter, and others just from that event, and Biden walking towards the edge of the stage, thought, ‘Oh, my god, something is wrong here. He’s not going to make it.’”
However, back in June, Kimmel reported on the controversy this way: “You know there is a clip of Joe Biden going around today, they say he froze and had to be escorted off stage on Saturday night. I was standing right next to him when it happened. He did not freeze. He was just listening to the people calling him in the front row. But the right-wing media, while working very hard to claim Biden is out of it, somehow seems to completely miss moments like this—”
By “this,” Kimmel meant Donald Trump referring to Rep. Ronny Jackson as Ronny Johnson. Trump’s slip-up aside, Tapper is hardly “right-wing media,” so the question is now whether Kimmel will admit his culpability. He is off this week, but next week’s shows will probably not feature any apologies.
Here are transcripts for the June 17, 2024 and May 14, 2025-taped shows:
CNN News Central
5/14/2025
8:40 AM ET
JOHN BERMAN: Look, and you bring up President Obama because there was a moment at that fundraiser, and that fundraiser really was a key moment for a lot of people in this history, which you so brilliantly document. But President Biden walked down to the end of the stage at this fundraiser for a moment. You can see it right there, and seemed to stare a little blankly into the crowd. And then President Obama tugged on him. You saw that tug and led him off the stage. So, you just said you spoke to a lot of people who were there for that. What else did they tell you about it?
JAKE TAPPER: Well, Obama’s side of that story is he wasn't sure what was going on, but he just wanted to get out of there, and he wasn't going to get out of there without Biden. So, he grabbed him, and it was more just his impatience than anything else. But other people who were there—and we should note that the Biden White House falsely, when people showed that clip and asked what was going on, said it was a cheap fake, they did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out of it way, they would call it a cheap fake. It was not fake. It was actual video. And people in the arena who did not, see the horrifying scene behind the stage, but in the arena, Congresswoman Annie Kuster, Jon Favreau, former Obama speech chief speechwriter, and others just from that event, and Biden walking towards the edge of the stage, thought, “Oh, my god, something is wrong here. He’s not going to make it.”
***
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
6/18/2024
12:30 AM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: You know there is a clip of Joe Biden going around today, they say he froze and had to be escorted off stage on Saturday night. I was standing right next to him when it happened. He did not freeze. He was just listening to the people calling him in the front row. But the right-wing media, while working very hard to claim Biden is out of it, somehow seems to completely miss moments like this—
