Ex-CNN reporter blasts Jill Biden over new memoir: Act of supreme selfishness

Former CNN political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson tore into former First Lady Jill Biden for her forthcoming memoir, branding the tome “an act of supreme selfishness” and accusing her of helping conceal concerns about her husband’s fitness for office as he sought reelection.In a blistering Bloomberg Opinion column published Friday, Henderson argued that Biden’s new book, “View From the East Wing,” confirms long-running suspicions that she privately recognized signs of former President Joe Biden’s decline while publicly defending his ability to serve another term.“With her memoir, Biden has essentially confirmed the speculation that she was part of a cover-up,” Henderson wrote, noting the former first lady of publicly insisted that her husband was fit to serve another four years while privately questioning his health and capacity to lead.The veteran political journalist, who spent years covering presidential campaigns and the White House before joining Bloomberg Opinion, seized on newly published excerpts from the memoir that detail the chaotic aftermath of Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump.According to excerpts first published by The Atlantic, Jill Biden feared her husband might be suffering a stroke as she watched him struggle through the debate.“Is this a stroke?” she recalled thinking as Biden delivered rambling answers onstage.She also wondered whether he had somehow been “drugged” and worried that viewers would assume the performance reflected how he behaved behind closed doors.For Henderson, those admissions undercut years of public assurances from Biden allies that concerns about the then-president’s age — he was 81 at the time of the debate — and cognitive abilities were overblown.The Bloomberg columnist also highlighted Jill Biden’s acknowledgment that the former president “was definitely aging” while in office and battled fatigue as well as lingering pain from a foot injury that neve...