When we first learned that Jake Tapper was co-writing a book about the cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline, it sounded like a joke. Jake Tapper was part of the problem; he was part of the legacy media apparatus that turned a blind eye to the cognitive decline that conservative media was reporting on regularly. We all saw it, but the mainstream media made excuses.
Back in March 2024, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough infamously had a meltdown on the air, angrily ranting at anyone who dared to question Joe Biden’s mental acuity.
“I've said it for years now: he's cogent,” he insisted. “But I undersold him when I said he was cogent. He's far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been intellectually, analytically.”
“Start your tape right now, because I'm about to tell you the truth," Scarborough ranted on. "And f you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I've known him for years. The Brzezinskis have known him for 50 years. If it weren't the truth, I wouldn't say it.”
Joe Scarborough March: Biden is far beyond cogent. He is better than he has ever been intellectually, analytically. He is the best Biden ever
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 28, 2024
Joe Scarborough Today: If he were CEO and he turned into performance like that, would any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on… pic.twitter.com/ojNPBV8ZZV
It wasn’t the truth. It was a lie, plain and simple. Everyone knew it then, and everyone certainly knows it now. There’s no spinning that kind of over-the-top praise for Biden’s cognitive abilities unless you’re deliberately trying to cover something up. You don’t go on air shouting that Biden is “the best version ever” unless you’re part of the effort to sell a version of reality that doesn’t exist.
And that brings us back to Tapper’s book. Critics have rightly pointed out that it’s little more than an attempt to rewrite the record—to sanitize the media’s role in the cover-up and let the press off the hook. Tapper’s appearance on Morning Joe this week all but confirmed it. In his telling, Scarborough wasn’t a willing participant in the deception; he was a poor, misled soul, personally targeted by Biden in some elaborate Jedi mind trick. It’s laughable, and worse, it’s intentional revisionism. Tapper isn’t just chronicling events — he’s giving his media pals a way to pretend they didn’t know what they absolutely did.
According to Tapper, Biden saw David Ignatius’s 2023 column urging him not to run again and decided to launch a personal charm campaign — not to the American people, not to concerned voters, but to Beltway media elites. Specifically, to Joe Scarborough. “Biden saw that,” Tapper said to Scarborough, referring to Ignatius’s op-ed, “and said to staffers that he wanted to convince you that you were wrong.”
According to Tapper, Biden focused on Scarborough to make sure that he thought differently and stayed true to the Biden campaign’s script.
“And he came on this show, and you guys had a robust conversation about this,” Tapper explained. “You largely agreed that you'd been hearing things about this, but that there was really no alternative, that Kamala Harris was not up to the job. That's what Democrats were telling you behind the scenes. Joe Biden saw that.”
Related: Megyn Kelly Humiliates Jake Tapper for Ignoring Biden’s Decline
He continued, “Joe Biden said to staffers that he wanted to convince you that you were wrong, and he focused on you like you were a constituency, like you were farmers in Iowa, like you were the Kiwanis Club in New Hampshire, and he made sure that you thought differently.”
WATCH: Jake Tapper tells MSNBC 'Morning Joe' hosts that Biden made targeted effort to convince Scarborough he was fit for office pic.twitter.com/aBcAhcpXZq
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) May 21, 2025
Tapper’s spiel was designed to give Scarborough cover, to suggest that he wasn’t lying or delusional when he made that claim; he was just deceived by a very determined Biden.
Rather than acknowledge that Joe Scarborough blatantly misled his viewers, Jake Tapper rolled out a weak, almost laughable excuse: Biden personally worked to convince Scarborough he was mentally sharp. Tapper framed it like Scarborough had been duped, as if Biden pulled off some masterclass in persuasion and poor Joe just fell for it. But let’s be honest: this isn’t journalism; it’s reputation management. Tapper’s explanation isn’t a serious defense; it’s a permission slip for Scarborough to claim he was fooled and not complicit.
The truth is far more damning. Scarborough didn’t sound like someone who had been misled; he sounded like someone actively selling a narrative, putting his own reputation on the line. Tapper’s version was a message to Scarborough’s viewers that Scarborough didn’t lie to them; rather, he’d just been duped.
And here’s the kicker: Tapper’s defense is actually worse than Scarborough’s original meltdown. Because we just saw how Tapper’s real goal here is to absolve the media for their role in the cover-up. Instead of holding anyone accountable, Tapper is helping rewrite the story to protect the press from criticism. And in doing so, he’s confirming what many already suspect: The media was covering for Biden then, and now they’re covering for each other.
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