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A recent declaration made by CNN anchor Jake Tapper about the cover-up of President Joe Biden's cognitive decline appears to go against his network's coverage during the 2024 presidential race.
Tapper reported that Biden did not recognize Hollywood icon George Clooney, a prominent Democratic donor, while attending a star-studded L.A. fundraiser last year. He also reportedly struggled to finish thoughts so much that former President Barack Obama had to inject himself into the conversation.
At the time, a video of Biden had gone viral showing him freezing on stage and being escorted offstage by Obama, something Tapper referenced during a CNN appearance last week promoting a new book about the cover-up of Biden's decline in office.
"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 on Wednesday.
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CNN's Jake Tapper has admitted he didn't cover Joe Biden's cognitive decline enough when the former president was in office. (Screenshot/CNN)
In the weeks leading up to the disastrous debate performance exposing his cognitive decline on the world stage, Biden went viral on multiple occasions in videos his critics said showed him losing his faculties. The first was of him appearing completely frozen while others danced around him at Juneteenth celebration at the White House. The second was of him appearing to wander off at the G-7 Summit away from other world leaders while trying to engage with parachutes, only to be corralled by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The third was Biden's freezing moment at the L.A. fundraiser.
It wasn't until the latter that the Biden White House latched onto the term "cheap fakes" to describe the viral videos they said were misleading and peddled by right-wing foes of the then-presumptive Democratic nominee.
"I think you have all called this the ‘cheap fakes’ video. And that's exactly what they are," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a press briefing last June. "They're done in bad faith."
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Some at CNN quickly embraced the White House's narrative.
CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz peddled the White House’s narrative, saying Biden had merely "looked out at the crowd for a few seconds" before walking offstage with Obama, adding that "Republicans and right-leaning media outlets" "used this moment to say that President Biden froze."
Several CNN personalities peddled the Biden White House's "cheap fakes" narrative about the viral videos showing signs of the president's cognitive decline. (Getty Images)
Moments later during a panel discussion, CNN commentator and former Kamala Harris adviser Jamal Simmons called Biden's fundraiser moment "obviously selected video."
"These are cheap fakes, [as] the White House and Biden people are calling them," Simmons told CNN's Erin Burnett.
On a separate program, Saenz referred to the moment of Biden wandering at the G-7 summit as "selectively, deceptively cropped videos."
"The news that a lot of Americans see and the manipulation that's distorting the 2024 election. That's tonight on NewsNight," CNN host Abby Phillip began her show at the time. "The November choice is between two old men. We know that. But tonight, I want to talk to you about the Joe Biden that Republicans want you to see and the pipeline of videos that aren't telling the full truth. And those videos are probably right now clogging the public consciousness as Americans start to think about their votes."
CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter offered an explainer of what "cheap fakes" are and sounded the alarm on their impact on the 2024 race.
"We've been worried for years about AI deep fakes, that computer-generated images are going to trick people into believing something that's totally false," Stelter said. "Cheap fakes are a little bit similar. They're cheap. They're just distorted out-of- context videos chopped up in certain ways, constructed in certain ways. That's what we're seeing. That's what the Biden administration, the Biden campaign, is so worried about right now. But make no mistake, they are worried about this. This is a real problem. This is not some made-up fiction. The videos are oftentimes made up. But the problem is real."
CNN's Brian Stelter sided with the Biden White House in the "cheap fakes" narrative, warning it would be a "real problem" going into the general election. (Screenshot/CNN)
CNN anchor Dana Bash, who co-moderated Biden's ill-fated debate alongside Tapper, pushed the "cheap fakes" narrative just days before Biden took the stage.
"A lot of memes and what the White House is calling cheap fakes, which means that there are videos that are being put out on social media and then amplified on conservative media that in some cases are just not right and in other cases are highly, highly misleading about President Biden," Bash said.
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Bash admitted her own concern about drawing attention to the Biden videos, turning to liberal Hollywood icon Barbra Streisand for advice, quoting her post on X that read, "We must stay vigilant to the ongoing and pervasive spread of misinformation… maybe now more than usual in the lead up to this presidential election."
"Her argument was don't amplify it," Bash told the panel before explaining the concept of the famed "Streisand Effect."
CNN anchor Dana Bash admitted she was hesitant to address the so-called "cheap fakes" to her viewers, looking to Barbra Streisand for advice on "misinformation."
Perhaps Biden's strongest defender on CNN regarding the false "cheap fakes" narrative was the network's then-media reporter Oliver Darcy, who has since left the network.
Just two days before the debate, Darcy authored a story with the headline, "Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate."
"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… To support the narrative, these outlets and personalities have seized on Biden’s verbal gaffes (while ignoring Trump’s) and presented out-of-context video clips to their large audiences — a deceptive, but effective strategy that the Biden campaign has struggled to meaningfully rebut," Darcy wrote.
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Darcy appeared on-air after the viral L.A. fundraiser moment, denouncing the attention it was receiving from conservatives.
"These outlets are wrapping these videos in very misleading context, right? Saying that this is evidence that Biden was freezing. He's not able to walk offstage on his own, and that's obviously not the case, but that's how it's been portrayed in right-wing media," Darcy told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "And it plays into this years-long narrative where they have tried to portray Biden as a senile old man incapable of governing the country. And this is just the latest example. These attacks are obviously ramping up in the lead-up to the November election."
Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson are out with the new book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," this week.
CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.
