Former President Biden is back in the headlines, now with two brand new labels: Public Enemy No. 1, and cancer patient — oddly intertwined. Just as the cancer diagnosis was announced, media outlets, left-wing critics, and Trump and his allies launched a full-scale assault. It’s as if they’d all been waiting for a signal to pounce—and that signal came in the form of a new book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and coauthor Thompson: Original Sin.
They accuse Biden of hiding serious health issues — painting him as a modern-day Nixon with Watergate’s ghost resurrected. The firestorm was already raging; the cancer news poured gasoline on it. More books by others followed.
Video: Biden Ain’t the Sinner, Stupid – What on Earth is Jake Tapper After?
This story is too big, too strange, too carefully timed. It demands a deep dive, in two parts. Why have Tapper and co. launched this attack now? Is today’s chaos truly the fault of Biden’s incompetence? Is Trump’s return really because Biden selfishly clung to power?
First, let’s rewind: How did this full-blown anti-Biden crusade come to be?
The Hur “Diagnosis”
In May 2025, just after Trump’s first hundred days of bulldozing through Washington, a new media war broke out — this time, against Joe Biden. Enter Jake Tapper and his co-author, Jonathan Thompson, whose book drops like a bomb: Biden hid the fact that he is “mentally unfit,” “narcissistic,” and “delusional.” Mainstream outlets rush to echo the narrative.
Mainstream outlets jumped in quickly. What followed felt like a holy crusade: a new consensus emerged, seemingly overnight. Biden was now the villain who handed Trump a second term. He had become a liability to the nation, a mistake to be erased, a threat that must be purged.
The story took twists and turns.
The Tapper–Thompson book dropped with a coordinated media push. Ahead of the mid-May launch, the authors previewed it with op-eds in major left-leaning papers, accusing Biden’s team of hiding the president’s cognitive decline, both during the campaign and in office. The message: the American people had been misled.
On release day, Thompson’s employer, Axios, published audio clips revealing former White House officials privately acknowledging Biden’s health and decision-making issues. The implication: the cover-up ran deep.
The supposed “smoking gun”? A verbal slip during a 2023 special counsel interview, where Biden misstated the date of a past event.
That interview was part of an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents, led by Special Counsel Robert Hur, a Republican appointed by Biden’s own Attorney General Merrick Garland. Hur questioned Biden over two days in October 2023 and released his findings in February 2024, choosing not to pursue charges.
Then came the twist. In his report and later congressional testimony, Hur described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” — language that sparked outrage. Republicans seized on it to accuse the White House of hiding the president’s decline. The seeds of Biden’s eventual dropout were planted there and then.
Now, with the new book and the Axios leak, that narrative was revived and reframed. To Tapper and Thompson, Hur didn’t indict Biden because he pitied him. That bizarre logic is now being cited as hard evidence in the campaign to bring Biden down. But is this narrative legit?
Trump’s Revenge
Let’s get real. Determining Biden’s cognitive capacity was never Robert Hur’s legal job—and it’s definitely not Jake Tapper’s area of expertise. And the idea that a few offhand remarks or verbal stumbles prove a cover-up? That’s not journalism. That’s fan fiction.
Donald Trump wasted no time. He declared Biden a “national security threat” who was “never fit to serve.” He styled himself a “whistle-blower,” and accused the entire Democratic Party of criminal conspiracy and demanded a formal DOJ investigation.
The Democrats and mainstream media responded just as fiercely, a story for another time. But one thing is clear now: Tapper handed Trump the perfect weapon.
The legal and psychiatric communities protested, but the motivations of Hurr, GOP Congress, and Tapper-Thompson go far beyond professional judgment.
Can Biden, battling cancer, withstand this assault?
Now here’s the twist: the year Biden “forgot” was the year his son died. He didn’t forget the fact—he misspoke. He stuttered. Something he’s done for decades. Presidents, like everyone else, are allowed to slip up.
The U.S. presidency is the world’s most powerful and stressful job. Investigations of sitting presidents are rare; two-day interrogations by prosecutors are rarer still—only Clinton and Biden have faced this, both questioned by Republican prosecutors. Trump refused to be questioned by Special Counsel Mueller.
Biden’s stuttering and verbal slips have always been an issue. Though his PR team complains, there is currently no evidence that his verbal miscues have seriously harmed his governance.
Trump may try to leverage Tapper-Thompson’s revelations to push for criminal investigations. But so far, their accusations lack evidence, motive, or real harm—they are recycled tropes and speculation.
Does Biden’s cognitive ability really have a problem? And if so, how severe is it?
Biden’s Cancer
Biden has been grilled countless times about his cognitive state. Every time he answers, “My mind’s fine.” From his recent interviews and appearances on shows, he doesn’t seem to be in cognitive decline.
Let’s introduce a pair of concepts from modern cognitive psychology: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. These describe how human intelligence evolves with age.
Fluid intelligence—raw problem-solving power—peaks in your 20s. Crystallized intelligence—wisdom, judgment, social experience—grows with age. And let’s be honest: many of Biden’s critics are themselves aging, their own “fluid IQ” dripping away. Age does not equal dysfunction.
Future scientific ethics may oppose the stigmatization of aging and speech impediments. But for now, the reality is grim.
On Sunday, May 18, Biden’s office announced that the former president had been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer, which had already spread to his bones. Serious? Yes. But manageable. Prostate cancer is common among older men. It progresses slowly. Jimmy Carter’s cancer spread to his brain and liver, and he lived nearly a decade more.
Messages of support have poured in from around the world. But this time, Biden faces more ruthless enemies than cancer. It’s the political wolves circling around, left and right.
The world watches—some with sympathy, some with cold eyes. This time, how’s his luck? How long can he hold on?
The Conspiracy Circus
Biden’s life story has been laced with tragedy from the start. He lost his wife and daughter in a car crash; both sons were critically injured. His eldest, Beau, later died of brain cancer.
His surviving son, Hunter, is embroiled in trauma and was long chased after by the Republicans. And after defeating Trump in 2020, Biden inherited a pandemic, economic chaos, and a fragmented nation.
Yet the conspiracy mill never sleeps:
Theory 1: He must have known about the cancer long ago but deliberately hid it.
Medically, prostate cancer in the elderly progresses very slowly and often silently; many people have it symptom-free for years. Biden’s health reports have mentioned prostate nodules for years. He had surgery, and it was benign. Sudden symptoms and biopsy confirmation are normal. Hiding it, it would be a monumental scandal.
Theory 2: He’s extremely selfish and doesn’t even want to run for re-election anymore.
Historically, Biden has given up running multiple times. And no medical evidence shows prostate cancer impairs cognition.
Theory 3: He’s long been unable to perform his duties but is stubbornly holding on until leaving office.
They are talking about a massive conspiracy, entailing sworn testimonies, public hearings, court trials, and people going to prison. This would dwarf Watergate. Don’t count on the Republicans going soft. If they could, they’d definitely do it. And if they don’t, the media will have done all the dirty work.
Theory 4: The government can cover it up, so they always do; therefore, Biden must be hiding it.
Biden’s interviews, debates, withdrawals, and retirement — his health, finances, and family have all been under constant public scrutiny, like zoo animals. His travels and movements are closely monitored by the media. How would hiding work?
Theory 5:Cancer announcement was timed to counter the new revelations.
Yes, they are really saying this.
None of this holds up. If there’s a secret, it’s the worst-kept one in modern politics.
Still, media standards are double-edged. What Biden gets flayed for, Trump often gets a free pass. Franklin Roosevelt governed in a wheelchair. The public didn’t care because the media back then respected boundaries.
So, what is Jake Tapper doing next? Prepping for a sequel? The question is, how did Trump and Tucker become anti-Biden allies?
Star Influencers in Charge
Let’s stop pretending Tapper and Trump are from different planets. They’re both creatures of the same beast: a media-industrial complex that turns scandals into ratings and personalities into gods. They are both products of stardom, manufactured by the very systems they claim to expose.
In a healthy media ecosystem, journalism is built on accuracy, honesty, and discipline. But today’s mainstream media is driven by entertainment, commerce, and politics—three neighbors who all share a common skill: faking it.
Jake Tapper isn’t just CNN’s top anchor. He’s also a novelist, a TV host, and a regular guest on Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Bill Maher, and Colbert. He creates documentaries packaged as thrillers, and political reporting served like Netflix drama.
Is he a journalist? Or just a media brand?
When younger, Tapper did investigative journalism. From 2003 to 2012, he worked at ABC News as a Senior White House Correspondent, where he covered the Bush and Obama administrations. The year he joined CNN as an anchor, President Obama joked at the White House Correspondents' Dinner that spring, “Jake Tapper is leaving journalism.” Little did anyone know—that joke would turn out to be prophetic.
He now performs and harvests outrage. And that is the new face of news: spectacle over substance.
Back in 1980, CNN invented 24-hour news. By 1996, MSNBC and Fox had copied it. By the 2010s, everyone had launched their own streaming news brands. Over time, journalism morphed into opinion. Reports became rants. News became talk shows. Hosts became influencers.
Trump was made for this. He’s the ultimate influencer-president. Today’s news cycle is run by and for viral personalities. And the audience? Emotionally addicted. Politically tribal. Constantly triggered.
Decades ago, the anchor was “the most trusted man in America.” Gallup polls back then showed 60% trust in news. Today? That number has halved. The majority don’t trust it at all—worse than Congress, the courts, or even politicians.
What changed? Everything. Journalism collapsed. Emotional content took its place. But what didn’t change? Influence. Public trust may be gone, but media stars like Tapper still dominate the conversation, just like Trump, even while convicted.
Jake Tapper is a textbook example. According to YouGov, his fame rating is 66%. He’s not just a journalist. He’s a celebrity. He’s part of the show.
Let’s not forget: Tapper was the senior moderator of the 2024 Biden–Trump debate. The moderator later accuses one debater of “hiding illness and forcing himself on stage”. And as the loudest anti-Biden star influencer, Tucker’s so-called “postmortem” is full of blind spots and delusions. Delusions Trump loves, and blind spots some democrats find handy to patch the roof and retake the story.
In Biden, they find the best and easiest scapegoat. The story must be retold, to save their faces, their souls. And what could be more cathartic than silencing the man who once called on America to “restore its soul”?
So here we are, in a holy war. A ridiculous, unholy purge. Will they win?
Next, we look at the democrats. The sorry state they are in, and where to go from here. Stay tuned.
Further Reading
Why Trump Silences the Voice of America - Part 1/3
Why Trump Dismantles Public Broadcasting - Part 2/3
Why Trump Hates Public Media - Part 3/3
Trump’s Pope Fixation: A Prisoner’s Dilemma Part 1/2
Trump’s Power Obsession: The Dark Struggle with Redemption and Salvation Part 2/2
Despite wishful thinking, there’s no such thing as “just the facts” or complete neutrality, because editorial decisions and reporting choices always matter.
Yes, the media’s Biden coverage was flawed. But its reporting on Trump was far worse
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/17/trump-biden-election-media-coverage?utm_source=chatgpt.com