Credibility crisis: When CNN criticized questioning Biden's mental fitness

A CNN anchor is the co-author of a buzzy new book that sheds light on President Joe Biden's apparent mental decline in office and the cover-up orchestrated by his team, but various CNN figures were critical in the past of narratives that questioned his fitness.

As Jake Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson promote "Original Sin," an account of the cover-up that features high-level Democratic sources, media critics have noted CNN and other mainstream outlets downplayed or were even hostile to the suggestion that Biden could be losing his grip before last year's debate against President Donald Trump.

Here are four examples at CNN.

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President Joe Biden's mental acuity in office is the subject of a new book. (ABC / Screenshot)

CNN White House correspondent pushes White House ‘cheap fakes’ narrative

Videos of Biden freezing up or appearing confused at various events went viral throughout 2024, but the White House aggressively pushed back, saying some of them were edited in a misleading fashion or didn't show what they purported.

The term "cheap fakes" was popularized, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted from the podium that fact-checkers and mainstream outlets also embraced the term.

CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz pushed the White House’s narrative last year about a video of Biden appearing to freeze up at a fundraiser with Jimmy Kimmel, saying Biden had merely "looked out at the crowd for a few seconds" before walking offstage with President Barack Obama, adding that "Republicans and right-leaning media outlets" "used this moment to say that President Biden froze."

Moments later during a panel discussion, CNN commentator and former Kamala Harris adviser Jamal Simmons called Biden's fundraiser moment an "obviously selected video."

"These are cheap fakes, [as] the White House and Biden people are calling them," Simmons told CNN's Erin Burnett. 

Tapper feels differently about them.

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"The Biden White House falsely- when people showed that clip and asked what was going on- said it was a ‘cheap fake.’ They did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out-of-it way, they would call it a ‘cheap fake.’ It was not fake. It was actual video," Tapper said last week. 

CNN cites expert expressing concern about ‘ageism’

In a story in the aftermath of the Robert Hur report where Biden was memorably described as an elderly man with a poor memory, CNN's website published an article expressing concerns about both Biden and Trump and what type of cognitive ability was normal for a person in their 80s.

The article cited a professor who said Biden's issues with word recall were not necessarily indicative of someone having memory issues. Biden at times during the interview with Hur had difficulty remembering when he was vice president and the year of his son Beau's death in 2015.

The article concluded with the professor saying that ageism was codified in how people talk to one another, suggesting that the skepticism about Biden was a form of prejudice against the elderly.

Audio from then-President Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur reveals that he, and not the special counsel, brought up Beau Biden's death. (Getty Images)

"Ageism is not just what people do to each other. Ageism is also a mindset that you carry within yourself," the professor said. "It actually impacts your health negatively."

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Media reporter shreds ‘bogus’ Biden narrative

Ex-CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy repeatedly hammered proponents of the idea that Biden was in mental decline in his "Reliable Sources" newsletter before leaving CNN last year.

"For years, and particularly over the last few months, MAGA Media has portrayed Biden as a senile, mentally incapacitated elderly man who cannot remember what he had for breakfast, let alone run the federal government," Darcy wrote in a newsletter last June, before the then-president's disastrous debate.

Darcy declared the debate would give Biden an easy chance to "puncture the narrative" that he lacked fitness for office, suggesting Republicans had stupidly lowered the bar so much that Biden would easily clear it and come out of the debate stronger.

"That's a worry for right-wing media figures, which risk seeing their bogus narrative about Biden being ripped up in real time," he wrote.

Darcy also blasted the Wall Street Journal report last June about Biden's behind-the-scenes decline in his newsletter, saying it "owes its readers — and the public — better." Asked for comment by Fox News Digital about his past coverage, Darcy, who left CNN last year to start his own newsletter called Status, pointed to his newsletter Wednesday where he declared conservative media outlets were taking an undeserved victory lap.

Joe Biden appears alongside Ana Navarro during a 2019 appearance on ABC's "The View." (Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

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"For years, right-wing media pushed a warped narrative of Joe Biden as a brain-dead puppet controlled by sinister, shadowy forces. Now they’re demanding vindication—but they do not deserve it," he wrote.

Ana Navarro stays committed to the cause

Even after Biden dropped out of the race last July, "The View" co-host and CNN commentator Ana Navarro was committed to defending his mental acuity in office.

Later that week, Manhattan Institute official Reihan Salam wondered if Biden should even stay in office until his term ended, but Navarro erupted that any talk about his state behind the scenes was mere speculation.

"No, it is speculation! It is speculation! Because actually, unlike you, I’ve actually seen the guy at 9:00 at night. I have seen him after he has had five different events in 24 hours," Navarro said at one point.

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Navarro appeared to have a strong interest in Biden, beyond that of a typical media pundit. Although she continues to identify as a Republican, the left-wing commentator is an avid supporter of the Democratic Party, hosted the second night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, and has referred to Biden and Harris as "Uncle Joe" and "Auntie Kamala."

CNN has stood behind Tapper's past reporting in light of his new job, pointing to examples when he aggressively covered the subject. For his part, however, Tapper has said he feels "humility" about his past work on Biden and praised conservative media outlets for discussing what was in plain sight.

Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.