Quick Hit:

Jake Tapper, CNN's longtime host and one of the media's most vocal Russia collusion theorists, is now promoting a book that claims to expose the Biden White House’s cover-up of the president’s health issues. But as Federalist columnist Shawn Fleetwood points out, Tapper has spent years deflecting and denying concerns about Biden’s mental acuity—playing a leading role in the very cover-up he’s now pretending to uncover. Fleetwood outlines nine key moments where Tapper ran interference for the Biden administration, smearing critics and shielding the president from legitimate scrutiny.

Key Details:

• Tapper repeatedly framed concerns about Biden’s cognitive decline as attacks on his childhood stutter.

• https://x.com/jaketapper/status/1895092923173146840He insisted Biden was “sharp mentally” even when questions about the president’s mental fitness intensified.

• Tapper dismissed bipartisan reports and concerns, attributing them to partisan motives or foreign interference.

Diving Deeper:

CNN host Jake Tapper, known for his promotion of the debunked Russia collusion narrative, is now attempting to recast himself as a truth-teller on President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. But as Shawn Fleetwood argues in his Federalist op-ed titled “9 Times Jake Tapper Dismissed Biden’s Decline, Claimed He’s ‘Sharp Mentally’”, Tapper “spent years helping cover up Joe Biden’s obvious mental decline” and is now trying to “gaslight Americans into believing he had nothing to do with the scandal.”

Tapper’s efforts to discredit concerns about Biden’s cognitive abilities date back to the 2020 campaign. During an interview with Lara Trump, Tapper scolded her for raising Biden’s mental acuity, accusing her of mocking a stutter. “I think you were mocking his stutter,” Tapper charged, before adding, “I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline.”

Tapper repeatedly invoked Biden’s childhood stutter as a shield against mounting evidence of decline. In a segment last year, he said, “President Biden embraces his stutter, talking about it, while Trump mocks it, exaggerates it, belittles it.”

Even as Biden’s presidency progressed and more Americans questioned his ability to fulfill his duties, Tapper continued to defend him. In one segment recapping Biden’s first two years in office, he claimed the president “is sharp … mentally.” Tapper then minimized concerns by shifting the discussion to Biden’s age, noting Trump is only a few years younger.

Fleetwood also highlights Tapper’s combative interview with Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who challenged Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary. Tapper dismissed Phillips’s concerns and asked if he regretted “damag[ing]” Biden. He then relayed negative comments he’d heard from Phillips’s Democratic colleagues, calling his candidacy an “exercise in narcissism.”

When The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report featuring accounts from both Republicans and Democrats alleging Biden’s cognitive decline, Tapper tried to discredit the piece by noting that the Journal is “owned by News Corp, which is run by the Murdochs.” He further downplayed the story by saying it was “mostly based on observations of Republicans,” despite evidence to the contrary.

Tapper even dismissed the rationale from special counsel prosecutors who opted not to charge Biden for mishandling classified documents—because they believed a jury would view him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Tapper’s response? “His memory … it doesn’t seem great; it’s not horrible, but I don’t understand the outrage.”

Fleetwood further criticizes Tapper for suggesting concerns about Biden’s decline were the result of Russian disinformation. “The Russians are trying to … make us and the public not trust … our election integrity, [believe] Joe Biden has dementia,” Tapper reportedly said, lumping legitimate American concerns into the same category as foreign propaganda.

In Fleetwood’s words, “Despite his best attempts to feign innocence on the subject, Tapper was one of the main leftist hacks leading the media campaign to try and convince Americans that the doddering Biden on their television screens was just a figment of their imaginations.”

Fleetwood’s column underscores a growing concern among voters: the media’s complicity in shielding Democrats from scrutiny while vilifying Republicans for raising fair questions. Jake Tapper may be hawking a book now that admits the Biden White House orchestrated a cover-up—but as Fleetwood argues, it’s a cover-up Tapper helped execute.