May 14, 2025

TAPPING INTO THE MEMORY HOLE: Jake Tapper’s past coverage of Biden’s cognitive decline under scrutiny ahead of his new book.

Concerns over Biden’s age and stamina go as far back as 2019 as he ran in the Democratic primary. The subject wasn’t just raised by conservatives at the time, it was used as a cudgel by Democratic rivals Julián Castro and Cory Booker, who both cast doubt on the former VP’s sharpness.

Once Biden clinched the nomination in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, he ran what many dubbed the “basement campaign,” a name meant to signify Biden’s limited public appearances on the campaign trail. Biden frequently went viral for incoherent word jumbles during various events. His campaign repeatedly claimed that his various verbal stumbles stemmed from Biden’s lifelong battle of overcoming a stutter.

In October 2020, Tapper touted the Biden talking point, even showing a clip from the DNC convention of a 13-year-old Biden supporter with a severe stutter who turned to the Democratic nominee for inspiration, during a tense exchange with then-Trump 2020 campaign advisor Lara Trump (now a Fox News host), who drew attention to Biden’s cognitive decline at a campaign event.

“How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?” Tapper asked indignantly after showing a clip of Lara Trump commenting on Biden struggling for words.

“First and foremost, I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter,” Lara Trump responded. “I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline-”

“Ok,” Tapper quickly interrupted while talking over her. “It’s so amazing to me- a ‘cognitive decline.’ I think 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. I would think somebody in the Trump family would be more sensitive to people who do not have medical licenses diagnosing politicians from afar.”

After Lara Trump insisted Biden’s cognitive decline was “very concerning,” Tapper cut the interview short.

“Thank you, Lara. I’m sure it’s from a place of concern. We all believe that,” Tapper sarcastically told her before ending the interview.

Related: Jake Tapper Tries To Make Millions Exposing Biden’s Cognitive Decline After He Spent Years Hiding It.

More: CNN Cover-Up: Brian Stelter Eagerly Jumped on the Biden White House-Driven ‘Cheap Fakes’ Bandwagon.

UPDATE:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 9

WE START SAVING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, THAT MUCH IS CERTAIN: If Congress actually cancels the SLS rocket, what happens next?

The most likely answer is that NASA turns to an old but successful playbook: COTS. This stands for Commercial Orbital Transportation System and was created by NASA two decades ago to develop cargo transport systems (eventually this became SpaceX’s Dragon and Northrop’s Cygnus spacecraft) for the International Space Station. Since then, NASA has adopted this same model for crew services as well as other commercial programs.

Under the COTS model, NASA provides funding and guidance to private companies to develop their own spacecraft, rockets, and services, and then buys those at a “market” rate.

The idea of a Lunar COTS program is not new. NASA employees explored the concept in a research paper a decade ago, finding that “a future (Lunar) COTS program has the great potential of enabling development of cost-effective, commercial capabilities and establishing a thriving cislunar economy which will lead the way to an economical and sustainable approach for future human missions to Mars.”

Sources indicate NASA would go to industry and seek an “end-to-end” solution for lunar missions. That is, an integrated plan to launch astronauts from Earth, land them on the Moon, and return them to Earth. One of the bidders would certainly be SpaceX, with its Starship vehicle already having been validated during the Artemis III mission. Crews could launch from Earth either in Dragon or Starship. Blue Origin is the other obvious bidder. The company might partner with Lockheed Martin to commercialize the Orion spacecraft or use the crew vehicle it is developing internally.

Other companies could also participate. The point is that NASA would seek to buy astronaut transportation to the Moon, just as it already is doing with cargo and science experiments through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

This is the way.

I also hope that Congress uses the savings from SLS to restore some of NASA’s science funding, particularly the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Posted at 11:42 am by Stephen Green 28

FREE SPEECH DEFENDERS ARE FAMILIAR WITH COMMON “ZOMBIE ARGUMENTS” (ARGUMENTS THAT JUST WON’T DIE) AGAINST FREE SPEECH: e.g. “words are violence,” “hate speech ≠ free speech,” & “free speech is rightwing.” In The War On Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail (due out July 1) Nadine Strossen and I will hopefully debunk those pesky fallacies once and for all.

Posted at 11:14 am by Greg Lukianoff 46

SURPRISING TO WHOM?

You’d think that a magazine called The Economist would understand something about economics — but only if you hadn’t read The Economist in the last 15 years or so.

Posted at 10:56 am by Stephen Green 141

THE TRADE WAR: Trump tariffs have little impact on prices so far, defying grim forecasts.

Prices climbed at an unexpectedly slow pace last month, offering a boost to President Donald Trump, whose aggressive trade policies have sparked fears of a resurgence in inflation.

The Labor Department on Tuesday reported that prices rose at an annual rate of 2.3 percent, the smallest increase since early 2021. While price growth in so-called core sectors of the economy — which exclude volatile food and energy costs — remained elevated at 2.8 percent, April’s Consumer Price Index contained only scant evidence that Trump’s tariffs have meaningfully driven up the cost of living.

Kudos to Politico for framing the story this way.

Now then — what will they do with all those experts who provided the grim forecasts?

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green 174

THE NEW DARK AGE: Colorado’s forced march to energy uncertainty.

“Energy isn’t a luxury,” Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Travas Deal recently told my Power Gab co-host Jake Fogleman and me. His concern? The direction of Colorado’s energy policy—away from affordable, reliable baseload power and toward costly, intermittent wind and solar.

He’s right. Reliable power is not optional. It’s a matter of life and death. We saw that in Texas during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, where 246 people died amid rolling blackouts that nearly triggered a catastrophic grid collapse.

We’re seeing blackouts in Colorado, too. At the same time, the cost of power in Colorado is skyrocketing. Residential rates have increased over 85% since 2003, higher than inflation.

Yet Democrat Governor Jared Polis is doubling down on this dangerous trajectory to enshrine his unrealistic campaign promise of a grid powered by 100% “renewables” into state law. A draft bill circulated at the Capitol earlier this year mandates a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the electricity sector by 2035 and 100% by 2040. This far exceeds the ambitious targets codified in 2019: 80% carbon emissions reduction by 2030.

The only way to meet this emission goal is to shut down the remaining coal and natural gas baseload, blanket the state with industrial wind turbines, utility-scale solar installations, and industrial batteries, force Coloradans into electric vehicles, require heat pumps, and drain Coloradans’ bank accounts.

That last part is key.

Previously: ‘F’ Is for Democrat: Colorado’s Collapse Under One-Party Rule.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green 116

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: If Dems Want to Act Like Children They Should Be Put in Jailed Timeouts. “Honestly, these people are all lucky that Trump isn’t the vindictive destroyer of political enemies that they keep making him out to be. His administration is responding within the bounds of the law. If he wanted to become extra-judicial like his enemies are, he’s in a position to really make things difficult for them.”

Posted at 9:07 am by Stephen Green 45

IT REALLY IS THIS SIMPLE:

Related:

Finally: Watching Jake Tapper cash in on his own professional malfeasance is probably the most Beltway thing ever.

For now, anyway.

Posted at 8:55 am by Stephen Green 140

YOUR FINGERPRINT AND THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE: We hear a lot more about the Webb Telescope these days, but it wasn’t that long ago that the Hubble was star. So check out this interesting look on HillFaith at the connection between the latter and a human fingerprint.

Posted at 8:54 am by Mark Tapscott 7

THIS ONE FLEW UNDER EVERYBODY’S RADAR YESTERDAY: Trump Giving the New Syrian Boss Rope to Hang Himself With…or Not.

This is a gobsmacking move.

An ‘Only Trump could do this’ move.

As always, ever so interesting how it all came together, with Al-Sharaa seeking out the US, not vice versa. And the Syrian representative spun a dream of a Trump Tower in Damascus one day.

…Speaking at an investment forum on Tuesday, Trump said that he planned to lift sanctions on Syria after holding talks with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “to give them a chance at greatness”.

…Sharaa, who is keen to normalise relations with the US, has reportedly offered Trump a number of sweeteners including the Trump tower in Damascus, a demilitarised zone by the Golan Heights that would strengthen Israel’s claim to the territory it has occupied since 1967, diplomatic recognition of Israel, and a profit-sharing deal on resources similar to the Ukraine minerals deal.

The idea to offer Trump a piece of real estate with his name on it in the heart of Damascus was thought up by a US Republican senator, who passed on the idea to Sharaa’s team.

I can’t imagine who the senator was, but I’ll bet his last name might have something to do with a cracker often used for sweet pie crusts…just sayin’. What a hoot.

Trump will talk to anyone who sincerely wants to talk to him. It’s like his magic power.

If it works – and it’s all on the Syrians – it’s going to plug several gaping holes using available assets.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 8:36 am by Stephen Green 139

ICYMI: David Plouffe Is the Michelangelo of Play-Doh. “The thing is, Concha is entirely correct that Plouffe’s decisions on Al Smith, Rogan, Walz, and Cheney all led to disaster. What Concha misses is that, as bad as those choices were, the alternatives were worse.”

Posted at 8:05 am by Stephen Green 18

RACISM, STRAIGHT UP:

Posted at 7:46 am by Stephen Green 218

MAKE ARMS EXPORTS GREAT AGAIN: Trump signs deals with Saudis, including biggest-ever $142 billion arms agreement.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto ruler, warmly greeted Trump as he stepped off Air Force One at King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital. The two leaders then retreated to a grand hall at the Riyadh airport, where Trump and his aides were served traditional Arabic coffee by waiting attendants wearing ceremonial gun belts.

“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said later during a brief appearance with the crown prince at the start of a bilateral meeting.

They later signed more than a dozen agreements to increase cooperation between their governments’ militaries, justice departments, and cultural institutions.

Additional economic agreements were expected to be inked later Tuesday at a US-Saudi investment conference convened for the occasion.

Prince Mohammed has already committed to some $600 billion in new Saudi investment in the US, but Trump teased that $1 trillion would be even better. The agreement includes a mammoth arms deal described by the White House as the largest “in history” between the allies, worth nearly $142 billion.

It’s still too soon to bring the Saudis on board as the capstone to the Abraham Accords, but I wonder if this arms deal was a sweetener.

Posted at 7:34 am by Stephen Green 86

GEORGE GASCON* SMILES: Menendez brothers have sentenced reduced to 50 years in prison opening possibility for parole.

Erik and Lyle Menendez are eligible for parole 35 years after they were imprisoned for murdering both of their parents.

The brothers faced Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, where Judge Michael Jesic reduced their sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life.

This change means they’re now eligible for parole under California‘s youthful offender law because they committed the crime under the age of 26.

* Which means George Soros smiles. Gascon may have been tossed out of office, but plenty of Soros-backed D.A.s remain. As Tom Cotton wrote in 2021: Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor.

Posted at 7:00 am by Ed Driscoll 39