CNN’s Jake Tapper made a stunning claim about former President Joe Biden in his latest defense of his new book “Original Sin.”
Tapper has been on a media blitz over the last week to promote his book that details the alleged “cognitive decline” of the former president. He had also faced widespread criticism over his work, with many critics questioning why he did not report on Biden’s alleged decline at the time.
During an interview with conservative pundit Piers Morgan, Tapper claimed that the “cover-up” of Biden’s mental acuity may be “worse” than the Watergate scandal during former President Richard Nixon’s administration.
Morgan questioned the conclusion of Tapper’s book, which read: “Joe Biden is not Richard Nixon, and the hiding and cover up of his deterioration is not Watergate.”
“I am not entirely sure I agree, Jake, with that conclusion,” Morgan said.
Tapper admitted that Biden’s “scandal” may be worse.
“The next line is, ‘It is an entirely separate scandal’. It is a scandal. It is without question, and maybe even worse than Watergate in some ways,” Tapper said. “Because Richard Nixon was in control of his faculties when he was drinking.”
“We don’t mean to exonerate...the only reason that we have the Watergate thing is there because we quote Archibald Cox, who was a Watergate investigator, talking about how powerful the presidency is and how presidents get surrounded by people who have a vested interest in keeping that President propped up,” Tapper added.
“That’s the only reason we invoke Watergate is just to make clear like it’s not Watergate. This is an entirely separate scandal, maybe even worse, maybe even worse,” he said.
Morgan said that he believes the Biden situation was “worse” than Watergate during Nixon’s presidency.
The Watergate scandal sent shockwaves throughout the country after it was reported that burglars tied to Nixon’s campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters to install listening devices. Nixon later resigned after his cover-up of the burglary became public.
Tapper’s book, co-written with Axios reporter Alex Thompson, was released last week just days after Biden’s cancer diagnosis became public.
Biden supporters have argued that Tapper’s book serves only as a distraction from President Donald Trump’s unprecedented administration. The book has also drawn criticism from conservatives and Biden critics, who say Tapper failed to address concerns about Biden while he was in office.
Tapper acknowledged the criticism during his interview with Morgan, who played a clip of an interview Tapper conducted with Lara Trump last year. During the interview, Tapper dismissed her allegations that Biden was suffering from “cognitive decline” during the campaign.
“I wish I had covered the story better,” Tapper said. “And looking back on that interview, which I feel tremendous humility about, [Lara Trump] was right and I was wrong.”
“In retrospect, of course I wish my coverage had been better on the subject,” he added.
The former Democratic president revealed earlier this month that he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. The cancer diagnosis has led to even more criticism of Tapper, who had also reportedly hired a crisis public relations firm to clean up the backlash over the book while his colleagues continued to promote it before and after its release.
Stories by Lauren Sforza
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