Criticize Jake Tapper for his hypocrisy in writing a book about the cover-up of Biden's decline while having been a part of it. But give Jake credit for one thing. He appears to have discovered the last person in America this side of Dr. Jill who still believes Joe Biden was capable of serving out a second term.
On CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, Tapper quizzically put it to Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC):
"Do you think that Joe Biden really would have been able to perform as president all the way through January 2029, when he would have been, when he would be 86?"
Replied Clyburn:
"Yes, I thought that back then. I still think that. But I don't know that."
In responding to Clyburn's denial of the undeniable about Biden's incapacity to serve, Tapper set up a temporal defense of his own complicity. He said:
"I don't think there's any comparison between how sharp you are... and what we've seen from President Biden, both in that [Hur] audio but also throughout 2023, 2024, especially on the debate stage."
Note how Tapper seemed to date the first inklings of Biden's decline back only to 2023. That would let Jake off the hook for his blatant, despicable bit of gaslighting in denial of Biden's incapacity.
Have a look at the video of Tapper's 2020 interview with President Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump in which they had this exchange.
LARA TRUMP [at a 2020 Women for Trump forum]: Every time he comes on stage and they turn to him, I'm like, Joe, can you get it out? Can you get the words out? You kind of feel bad for him.
JAKE TAPPER: How do you feel it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?
TRUMP: First and foremost, I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see onstage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline.
TAPPER: [sounding fed up] Okay.
TRUMP: That's what I'm referring to. It makes me uncomfortable.
TAPPER: You have no, it's so amazing to me that you --
TRUMP: I'm trying to figure out an answer. You're trying to tell me that what I was suggesting was a stutter.
TAPPER: I think that you were mocking his stutter, yeah. I think you were mocking his stutter. And I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline.
TRUMP: I'm not diagnosing, I'm saying --
TAPPER: But I would think that somebody in the Trump family would be more sensitive to people who do not have medical licenses, diagnosing politicians from afar.
Plenty of people have diagnosed your father from afar, and I'm sure it offends you, your father-in-law from afar. I'm sure it offends you.
You don't have any standing to say --
TRUMP: I'm not diagnosing him. What I'm saying, Jake --
TAPPER: You just talked about a cognitive decline.
TRUMP: -- is that Joe Biden is struggling at many times on stage. And it's very concerning to a lot of people that this could be the leader of the free world. That is all I'm saying. I genuinely feel sorry for Joe Biden.
TAPPER: [abruptly ending exchange] Thank you, Lara Trump. I appreciate it.
We've all known people with stutters. And Biden might have had one in his younger days. But anyone with eyes and ears open knew, going back to at least 2019, that Biden wasn't stuttering. He was showing the telltale signs of an elderly person with diminished mental acuity.
Note: At 84, Clyburn is two years older than Biden. And Tapper was right in observing that Clyburn is much sharper than Biden -- an admittedly low bar. Clyburn played some word games, trying to leave some wiggle room for himself on his views on Biden's acuity.
On the one hand, he said that in his many conversations with Biden, he never witnessed anything out of the ordinary. And he added, "I still think" Biden would have been capable to serving through the end of a second term, at age 86. But he added, "I don't know that."
And Clyburn admitted to being "concerned" by Biden's disastrous debate meltdown. But he remained agnostic as to whether it was a "condition" or just an "incident." Clyburn suggested that it was the latter, noting that he himself has at times looked for his glasses when in fact he was wearing them.
But Clyburn again tried to play it both ways, claiming, "I have no way of knowing which one is true."
News Flash For Rep. Clyburn: As everyone—with the possible exception of you—knows: it's a condition.
As for Tapper, he can try to portray himself today as the brave truth teller. But his past collaboration in the coverup—as in his reprehensible exchange with Lara Trump in which he accused her of harming children with stutters—is as undeniable as Biden's decline.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
State of the Union
5/18/25
9:23 am EDTJOE BIDEN [in Hur tape]: Trump gets elected in November of 2017?
BIDEN LAWYER: 2016.
BIDEN: 16, 16. All right. So [long pause] Why do I have 2017 here?
LAWYER: That's when you left office, January of 2017.
BIDEN: Yeah, okay. But that's when Trump gets sworn in, right?
LAWYER: Right, correct.
JAKE TAPPER: At a different time in that interview, he's asked about the 2017-2018 period, and he says during that period, his son Beau was either deployed or dying. But Beau was deployed in 2008-2009, and he died, tragically, in May 2015.
Needless to say, even supporters of the president have heard these tapes and been alarmed by it. What was your response to them? Did you see much of that when you had meetings and interactions with President Biden during his term?
JIM CLYBURN: No, I didn't. You know, the fact of the matter is I saw Biden often, but not as often as people seem to think. I saw him, I talked to him on the telephone very often, and I never saw anything that I thought was outside of the ordinary.
. . .
TAPPER: With all due respect, sir, having interviewed you quite often, I don't think there's any comparison between how sharp you are and your ability to talk and answer questions and get dates right, et cetera, and what we've seen from President Biden, both in that audio but also throughout 2023, 2024, especially on the debate stage.
Do you think that Joe Biden really would have been able to perform as president all the way through January 2029, when he would have been, when he would be 86?
CLYBURN: Yes, I thought that back then. I still think that. But I don't know that.
When people ask me, did I know this or did I know the other? And the fact of the matter is, no, I didn't. And that's -- you make my point here. So it's not all about age. I've seen people develop Alzheimer's when they're in their 30s and 40s.
So it's not about age. It's about the ability to do the job. And I never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job. Just that simple.
TAPPER: The debate didn't make you concerned about whether or not he could do the job?
CLYBURN: Absolutely, it did. I never saw any of that. I didn't see the tapes from the Hur interview. And I watched that debate, and you and I talked about it. And yes, I was concerned.
Now, the question is, is this a condition or is this an incident? And I have had incidents when I was looking for my glasses and had them on.
So you have these kinds of incidents. And that's the question is. And then remember, a lot of us were a bit concerned about his schedule in the run-up to the debate. He took two overseas trips, came back and started preparing for that debate. And I called it at the time preparation overload, because they were cramming into a four or five-day period the preparation for the debate after taking two overseas trips, which I thought was taxing in and of itself.
And so these kinds of concerns are out there. But none of us thought that there was anything here that created any suspicions of any prolonged condition.
. . .
And so, these people [when he speaks with people back in South Carolina] are also concerned. And they look back at those tapes. They remember the debate. And they are concerned as to whether or not that was, in fact, just an incident or whether that was a condition that was being kept from people. I have no way of knowing which one is true.
