Curtis Houck
CNN’s @JakeTapper says it’s “not...accurate” to say he assisted in the media cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline because he wanted to hurt Donald Trump and keep him out of the White House, adding he was not at all “fooled” by the Biden White House.... @MegynKelly: “[Y]ou are not the right messenger to bring the story about the cover up because you helped, you allowed it, and you likely did that out of a desire to help Joe Biden and hurt —” Tapper: “Megyn!” Kelly: “— Donald Trump. You didn't want to do anything that might improve Trump's chances.” Tapper: “I do not think that that is accurate. I — I do not think that that is true at all. The idea that Siobhan and Annie do their piece, and we have on the co-chair of the Biden campaign is not me trying to cover for the Biden campaign. That is me putting the questions of the reporting that were made to him and saying things like, so you really haven't seen any moment, or you would acknowledge that you wouldn't 000 you acknowledge that he's lost a step? He's 81, etc. etc. Ah, like I said before, do if I had known then what I know now, would I have been more aggressive? Yes, of course.” Kelly: “How did I know and you didn't know. I'm just curious because when I saw that Wall Street Journal report in June of ‘24, I scoffed at it. Like, okay, it's a — it's a attempt, but it's lame. Everybody on the right-wing ecosystem and the independent media ecosystem knew it was a lame attempt that only scratched the surface. We had all been discussing —” Tapper: “Okay, so lemme — lemme —” Kelly: “— his serious cognitive problems for years —” Tapper: “— let me just —” Kelly: “— by that point, Jake. In June of 2022, this show did a full, two-hour program on his —” Tapper: “— oh, that’s great!” Kelly: “— cognitive decline.” Tapper: “It’s heard — I heard it!” Kelly: “It was. I know we want to pretend — I'm mentioning the Wall Street Journal out of — as a courtesy, but those of us on this side of the aisle had been reporting in depth on his multiple problems in the obvious lies we were being told for years! For years! You really want the audience to believe you were fooled?” Tapper: “What do you mean I was fooled? I — I — I'm not saying I was fooled. I'm saying we all saw these moments before the camera, and they were obviously concerning, and he was obviously aging, and that was significant, but the people at the White House —” Kelly: “So, what did you do to get to the bottom of it?” Tapper: “— I'm trying to answer the question. But so, the people at the White House, when I would call, when others would call, when Alex would call, would lie. He's fine. He's fine. You'd call Democrats and say, what are you seeing behind the scenes here because this is concerning? He's fine. He's fine . This is just a moment. He's 79. He's 80. He has moments like that, but he's fine. His decision making's fine. They're still saying that. They're still saying that And let me defend Annie and Siobhan there for a second because you just said that their Wall Street Journal story just scratched the service. They got what they could get in June 2024. And I went back — and Alex and I went back to report some of the same things that they reported on. For example, there was a meeting in the White House about Ukraine funding in January 2024 and we were able to get people to say things as a Democratic member of Congress that I — look, I don't know who Annie and Siobhan's sources are, but they were not able to get them to do that. I assume that, you know, they had dozens of sources for that article, but not one of the Democrats that they talked to would even talk on background.” Kelly: “Okay.” Tapper: “It is a complicated thing”