We Can't Ignore The Shady Side Of CNN's Jake Tapper

Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again" launched at a particularly awkward moment, with former president Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis revealed just two days prior. Granted, the book was written long before the diagnosis — but that hasn't stopped a ton of public figures from calling Tapper out for what they see as a shady move. Between previously not having delved into Biden's health when other outlets did and the way "Original Sin" was promoted, let's get into it. 

We'll start with The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, which lambasted Tapper for previously rubbishing their claims that Biden's health was in 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," they wrote. The editorial board went on to issue this zinger: "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." 

Speaking to Fox News on the matter, a rep for CNN denied that Tapper hadn't given any airtime to the concerns about Biden. "From the campaign in 2020 to 2024 when he dropped out, Jake raised concerns about President Biden's mental stamina on his shows, questioned Biden officials directly about his health on air, and consistently encouraged open discussion and debate on the issue," the representative said. As for Tapper himself, he addressed the criticism in an interview on "The Megyn Kelly Show." Okay, so we're using "addressed" loosely — Tapper admitted that the questions critics had were "tough and fair." However, as many a commenter pointed out, he didn't actually speak to the criticisms themselves. 

Another voice who came out against Jake Tapper in a big way was Joe Biden's granddaughter, Naomi Biden. In response to a post to X by Public Notice journalist Aaron Rupaur noting that Tapper and Alex Thompson wanted to be in the limelight rather than focus on actual news, Naomi agreed ... and then some. 

"This book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class. The ones who rarely enter the arena, but profit from the spectacle of those that do. Put simply, it amounts to a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self promoting journalists out to make a quick buck," she wrote — and yikes. Naomi also called out the sources used in the book, criticizing the fact that most were anonymous. 

Of course, Naomi has a very personal connection to the situation, and on "The View," Alyssa Farrah said that while she backed Tapper as both a friend and a journalist, and even called out the critics who were suggesting Tapper did something wrong, she also could understand where the former president's granddaughter was coming from. "With the family, I take exception. Anyone's gonna defend their family," she acknowledged. Sure enough, Naomi had ended her X post by complimenting her grandfather, describing him as "so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to ever understand the why or how of it all." We're keeping Naomi, Joe, and the rest of the Biden family in our thoughts. 

Shifting from the book's content to the way it was marketed, some have also called that out as shady. Notably, Jon Stewart poked fun at the fact that Jake Tapper kept promising juicy details, rather than reporting them as a news anchor should. "Don't news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out? Isn't — isn't that the difference between news and a secret? ... Breaking news — in a week," the "The Daily Show" host joked. Stewart went on to poke fun at CNN going all in on the marketing as well, even if the network had to tone it down in the wake of Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis. "Can CNN thread the needle? How do you pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor's book, to somberly and respectfully ... promoting your anchor's book?" he teased. 

Stewart wasn't the only one who called out the marketing of Tapper's book on air. Au contraire, Joy Behar had a stinger of her own on "The View." Criticizing the fact that so many of CNN's anchors were bringing attention to "Original Sin," Behar scoffed, "When did CNN become a place to hawk your book? Is Wolf Blitzer coming out with a cookbook?" In case you were wondering, we checked, and he isn't. 

Sticking with "The View," it bears mentioning that like Alyssa Farrah, Sunny Hostin came to Tapper's defense regarding holding on to the information rather than reporting it as it happened, reiterating his claims that the sources who spoke to him only did so post-election. Hostin's stance was that a number of political figures from Donald Trump's first administration had known about things first-hand and kept them secret for their own tell-alls, and that deserved more condemnation than Tapper's book. 

Perhaps ironically, given their complicated relationship, former "The View" anchor Meghan McCain seemed to be in agreement with Joy Behar regarding Jake Tapper's book. However, speaking on an episode of "Next Up with Mark Halperin," McCain made it clear she didn't just find the book shady. On the contrary, she started by saying she and Tapper used to be friends ... until she cut him off. 

"I used to really think he was a straightforward journalist, and then in the past, I think beginning of Trump era, maybe even a little bit before that, I just really put him in the basket of being a really biased, quite frankly, hack journalist," she said — and yikes. McCain added that while she did try to maintain friendships regardless of political beliefs, because she felt as though Tapper intentionally tried to make conservatives look bad, he was the exception. "It took a point where I was like, I just can't have a relationship of any kind with this person, just because I don't feel like any of it is genuine or altruistic," she said. 

McCain went on to show her own shady side, sharing that she didn't actually have an issue with the book being written, and that if Alex Thompson had written it by himself, she'd buy it and even do an interview with him. Out of everything McCain has had to apologize for over the years, something tells us her digs at Tapper are at the bottom of her list. As for Tapper, if what McCain said about him not being a genuine friend is true, he's probably not all that bothered, either.