CBS News journalist admits the top story the media ignored this year was Biden's decrepitude

Kamala Harris made clear to CNN's Dana Bash in an August interview that she did not regret gaslighting the American people about President Joe Biden's worsening decrepitude. It appears that elements of the media have instead come to regret their role in maintaining the illusion.

When asked during a year-end roundtable on "Face the Nation" Sunday what the media underreported or failed to cover, CBS News' Jan Crawford answered, "Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate."

Crawford, the network's top legal correspondent, acknowledged that the media failed to press the issue despite obvious signs of the Democratic president's worsening state.

"It's starting to emerge now that his advisers kind of managed his limitations, which has been reported in the Wall Street Journal for four years. And yet he insisted that he could still run for president," said Crawford.

Citing insights from Democratic lawmakers, donors, and aides who worked with Biden, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that elements of the president's inner circle developed a particularly insulating culture inside the White House to protect Biden during the pandemic, but "the shell constructed for the pandemic was never fully taken down, and his advanced age hardened it."

"The structure was also designed to prevent Biden, an undisciplined public speaker throughout his half-century political career, from making gaffes or missteps that could damage his image, create political headaches or upset the world order," said the Journal. "The system put Biden at an unusual remove from cabinet secretaries, the chairs of congressional committees and other high-ranking officials. It also insulated him from the scrutiny of the American public."

"We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats," said Crawford. "It could have changed the scope of the entire election."

'This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.'

Crawford is hardly the first to admit the media's discrediting failure to properly report on Biden's decline.

Former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza recently admitted that as a reporter, he "should have pushed harder earlier for more information about Joe Biden's mental and physical well-being and any signs of decline."

Some reporters in the White House press pool anonymously admitted to CNN that they refrained from speaking truth to power for fear of "the blowback from pursuing such reports, especially from the White House and Democrats."

Prior to Biden's abysmal performance at his June 27 debate with President-elect Donald Trump, the media appeared resolved to recycle the talking points advanced by Attorney General Merrick Garland, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Gen. Mark Milley, and other fellow travelers with a stake in the maintenance of the illusion, namely that the 82-year-old Democrat was capable, competent, and ready to lead the world's pre-eminent superpower for another four years.

Of course, maintaining the illusion required discounting or glossing over Biden's difficulty completing sentences; struggles to stay upright; heavy reliance on cue cards; repetition of the same debunked anecdote nearly word for word, in short succession; confusing the dead with the living, his sister for his wife, and the names of disparate nations; uncertainty about the current year; apparent need to spend roughly 40% of his presidency out of office; and his unintentional international provocations.

MSNBC talking head Joe Scarborough was apparently more than happy to engage in such make-believe, stating in March, "I've said it for years now, he's cogent. But I undersold it 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, because he's been around for 50 years."

"Start your tape right now because I'm about to tell you the truth," continued Scarborough. 'And eff you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever."

Noah Berlatsky similarly embarrassed himself by declaring in a July 2023 Independent article, "There's virtually no evidence that Biden is in cognitive decline, and a lot of evidence — including the successful debt ceiling negotiations — that he remains fully able to do his job."

Prior to leaving CNN, Oliver Darcy cast doubt on suggestions that Biden's mental acuity was slipping.

Brian Tyler Cohen, a leftist podcaster who interviewed Biden in February 2022, reassured MSNBC readers in September 2023, "We don't have to guess whether Biden is capable of doing the job, because he's quite literally already doing it — and I'd argue doing it more effectively than any other president in modern American history."

Robert Costa, CBS News' chief election and campaign correspondent, doubled down on the competency narrative in response to Crawford's admission Sunday, telling the panel, "President Biden has said repeatedly he was sick during the debate June 27 in Atlanta, and he's always been fine and he leaves fine. That is his position, the position of many of his top aides as well, even though there is that reporting."

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