Jake Tapper admits criticism about his past Biden coverage is fair as new book Original Sin on ex-prezs decline faces backlash
CNN host Jake Tapper has acknowledged “humility” about his past coverage of Joe Biden, although that hasn’t stopped criticism of his and Axios reporter Alex Thompson’s new book about the cover-up of the former president’s decline while in office.“I think some of the criticism is fair, to be honest,” Tapper told CNN last week as he was pressed on the criticisms of himself and the book.“Of me, certainly.
I’m not going to speak for anybody else, but knowing then what I know now, I look back at my coverage during the Biden years — and I did cover some of these issues, but not enough.I look back on it with humility.”Tapper and Thompson’s new book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” was released on Tuesday. Tapper has admitted to insufficiently reporting on Biden’s health concerns as his past coverage of the administration has been criticized by conservatives. “And so, look, she was right, and I was wrong,” Tapper told NPR of a 2020 back-and-forth he had with Lara Trump, who was President Donald Trump’s campaign adviser at the time.
“And I look back at that exchange, and not just that, but my coverage in general – with humility.I don’t – I mean, I did cover this.
I can point to times, where, you know, I asked him this, or I asked him that, or I pointed this out to this person or whatever.”“But knowing what I know now, I barely scratched the surface.Very few people outside the conservative media world were doing so,” he said Tuesday.
In a separate interview on CBS, he said conservative media was “all over this.”Comedian Jon Stewart called out CNN on Monday for relentlessly promoting the book and slamming the network for advertising “a book about news they should’ve told you was news a year ago for free.”“Don’t news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out? Isn’t that the difference between news and a secret?” St...