A Reckoning for the Biden Coverup

This is getting blown way out of proportion. The fact that the majority of media outlets, DNC and Dem leadership conspired to prop up a turnip to run the nation by lying to the American public isn't really that bad.

I mean, Joe was still alive! That's got to count for something. Besides, the word "conspire" means many things to many different people. I prefer to use the term "exhibited outstanding teamwork".

A Reckoning for the Biden Coverup

The Democratic and media denial of his infirmity helped make Trump II possible.

By The Editorial Board, WSJ

Updated May 18, 2025 7:33 pm ET

Editor’s note: This editorial was published before news broke of President Biden’s cancer diagnosis. We wish him God speed on his recovery.

Democrats, in their despond over President Trump, are finally realizing they made a terrible mistake in covering for Joe Biden’s infirmity. Some might say the Biden coverup is old news, but it’s important to record for future’s sake how much damage the Bidens and their media and Democratic collaborators did. Above all, they denied the American people a better presidential choice.

The Biden dementia issue is surfacing again with the arrival of the book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.” The authors are journalists Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios, and our guess is that most Americans will look at the title and say: Now they tell us.

The killer anecdote is supposedly that Mr. Biden didn’t recognize George Clooney at a June 2024 fundraiser co-hosted by the famous actor. Mr. Clooney and others at the event were reportedly aghast. But why only then?

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Americans could see with their own eyes for years that Mr. Biden was going downhill fast. He often stumbled or fell. He couldn’t remember names. He often looked lost in public appearances and had to be led offstage. The polls all said even most Democratic voters wanted a different nominee. Yet only after the June 27 debate meltdown did elite Democrats decide that old Joe had to go.

It wasn’t as if it was impossible to speak up. Dean Phillips did. The Minnesota Congressman ran for the nomination saying openly that Mr. Biden couldn’t win re-election, even against Mr. Trump, and wasn’t up to serving another four years. He also said he would gladly drop out if more prominent Democrats entered the race. No one did, and for his honesty Mr. Phillips was deemed a traitor to his party, an opportunist, and a Republican cat’s paw.

Democrats had another opportunity when special counsel Robert Hur published his report on Mr. Biden’s handling of classified information in February 2024. Mr. Hur essentially said that, while Mr. Biden had broken the law, he couldn’t be fairly tried because a jury would conclude he was a forgetful old man. Democrats denied this was true and attacked Mr. Hur as a partisan trying to help Donald Trump.

Now we learn, with the recent release of the audio of Mr. Hur’s interview with Mr. Biden, that the special counsel was if anything too kind about the President’s memory and rambling. Messrs. Phillips and Hur are owed an apology.

A few of the coverup culprits deserve to be called out. Mr. Biden walked away from his 2020 campaign vow to be a transitional President. Somehow he convinced himself that only he could defeat Mr. Trump. By running he made it unlikely any heavyweight Democrat would get in the race.

Heavy blame, too, goes to the Biden family and especially Jill Biden. She more than anyone could see his decline. Yet Democrats say the first lady was more determined than anyone that Joe run again.

The closer to the inner Biden circle Democrats were, the more they share the ignominy. Cabinet member Pete Buttigieg now says that “maybe” Mr. Biden shouldn’t have run again, but he was among those saying the President was fit for duty.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, who helped Mr. Biden win the South Carolina primary in 2020, rigged the timing of that state’s primary in 2024 to make it the first state to vote. This diminished the chance for a New Hampshire upset that might have encouraged other challengers. Mr. Phillips still won 19.7% of the vote in New Hampshire, and various write-ins won 8.3%, a warning that Democrats were headed for trouble.

The Biden senility coverup is also a media reckoning. Whenever someone dared to point out that Mr. Biden wasn’t up to the job, a praetorian media guard assembled to deny it. We could quote chapter and verse from many media sources, but one example worth citing is none other than Mr. Tapper. Grabien, the TV clip service, has compiled a montage of the CNN host casting doubt on those who cast doubt on Mr. Biden’s mental fitness.

The Wall Street Journal reported, in a detailed piece on June 4, 2024, that those who observed Mr. Biden in person were concerned about his decline. Mr. Tapper quoted a White House dismissal of the story, including a sneer that the Journal is “owned by News Corp, which is run by the Murdochs,” as if that rebutted the story. He then interviewed a Democrat who dismissed it. A more curious journalist would have explored if it were true, and maybe even done some of his own reporting. Only now does he tacitly admit the Journal was right.

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The coverup of Mr. Biden’s mental decline will go down as one of the great scandals of modern politics. By refusing to admit what voters could so clearly see, Democrats denied their party an open primary. Once Mr. Biden imploded, they handed Kamala Harris the nomination without debate.

Had Mr. Biden bowed out in 2023, Republicans might also have been more open to nominees other than Mr. Trump. Instead, Democrats turned to lawfare in an attempt to disqualify Mr. Trump, which solidified his hold on GOP voters. Democrats and the press are now appalled by Mr. Trump’s second term. They would do better to think upon, and seek contrition for, their own role in making it possible.