It was once understood that a free press existed to hold power accountable, regardless of who held the reins of power — that’s what the First Amendment exists for. That noble watchdog, however, is gone. In its place is a partisan attack dog, trained to strike at one side while guarding the other.
The media’s sudden obsession with presidential health isn’t a revival of genuine oversight. It’s a calculated pivot after years of protecting Joe Biden from the very questions about his fitness for office that they now wield indiscriminately against President Donald Trump.
When accountability is applied to only one party, it stops being journalism and becomes nothing more than a campaign contribution.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent let loose at the New York Times DealBook summit. He called the situation “one of the greatest scandals of all time,” highlighting the media’s refusal to confront “the coverage of the Biden administration, Joe Biden’s diminished capacity and the cover-up.”
CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, who was moderating the discussion, responded that “that’s why it’s probably fair to raise these questions” about President Trump.
It’s funny how that works. If you asked such questions of Joe Biden while he was playing the role of president, it was decried as ageist and bigoted. Yet now the media is duty-bound to scrutinize Trump’s health — because, of course, it’s all about double standards.
Naturally, Bessent wasn’t about to let Sorkin get away with that and pushed back, demanding to know, “Where was The New York Times?” He then contrasted the Biden years with Trump’s second term. He noted that the Trump administration had just wrapped up a three-hour Cabinet meeting and highlighted how different things looked only a year ago. “For ten months, the Biden administration did not have a Cabinet meeting,” Bessent reminded Sorkin, adding that it made even basic constitutional oversight impossible. “How are you going to invoke the 25th Amendment if the Cabinet secretaries never see the president, which they didn’t?”
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Bessent capped the point with what he claimed officials have been telling him privately. He revealed that a person inside Treasury said that he sees President Trump “more in a day than my predecessor saw Joe Biden in half a year.”
🚨 BREAKING: In a mic drop moment, Sec. Scott Bessent just PUMMELED the NYT to their faces for a HUGE double standard on Donald Trump's health
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 3, 2025
"WHERE was the New York Times? We just had a 3 hour cabinet meeting yesterday!"
"For 10 MONTHS Biden did not have a cabinet meeting.… pic.twitter.com/HyPWjPWFUF
The media is supposed to be a check on our government, providing oversight and demanding accountability of our elected officials, but the system doesn’t work when the press protects one party while holding the other to a completely different standard. Conservative media were questioning Biden’s cognitive decline for years, but the legacy media did everything possible to push back.
Now, we’re expected to believe that the media suddenly had an epiphany in questioning Trump’s health and stamina. Please. When Biden was still in the race, the press either overlooked his obvious physical and mental decline or claimed Trump was no different despite the clear contrast. Once Biden dropped out, the narrative shifted to Trump being the oldest president elected, and suddenly, questioning a candidate’s health and age became acceptable again.
Karoline Leavitt also called out the double standard this week, when she tore into The New York Times’ recent hit piece claiming Trump’s schedule is much lighter in his second term as a “fake news story” built on a cherry-picked slice of his day. She then held up their own past headlines praising Biden as “100% fine” after his infamous fall on the steps to Air Force One, and “healthy and vigorous” after his physical, even though it was obvious he wasn’t. As Leavitt pointed out, there’s no reason for the media to question Trump’s pace because they see him work constantly.
The media’s mission has always been to take down Trump. Now, in a striking twist, they’re grilling him with questions they never dared ask Biden — questions Biden desperately deserved to be asked. The media literally ignored one of the greatest scandals of all time, and now they want us to believe they actually care about oversight.
