CBS Reporter Regrets Media Misinformation On Biden For All The Wrong Reasons

CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford admitted Sunday that the media should have been covering President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, but not for the reason you might think.

Rather than take a principled stand on the journalistic ethics of the media ignoring what she called “Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline,” Crawford lamented that her and the media’s lack of scrutiny cost the Democrats a chance to run a better candidate.

Crawford argued that if the media had held Biden’s feet to the fire, it could have prompted an open Democratic primary.

“It could have changed the scope of the entire election,” she said during a Sunday airing of CBS’s “Face The Nation” program.

Biden’s now-infamous 2024 debate flub eventually led to his downfall and the coronation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

His stuttering and inability to produce clear sentences during the debate prompted Trump at one point to remark “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

The White House blamed Biden’s poor performance on a cold, but his debate showing prompted numerous lawmakers, including those from his own Democratic Party, to call for him to drop out of the race. (RELATED: ‘I Don’t Like That’: Sunny Hostin Says Biden Is Not Being Transparent About His Age, Mental State)

Despite an initial burst of defiance, Biden dropped out less than a month after the debate.

“We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit to run for office for another four years,” Crawford remarked Sunday.

She revealed the sentiments a day after a report emerged that Biden and members of his staff regretted his dropping out, according to people familiar with their discussions.

Crawford also referenced a recent Wall Street Journal report that Biden’s aides have essentially been running his office for most of his presidency.

She called Biden’s alleged assertion that he thinks he could have beaten Trump, which The Washington Post reported Saturday, “delusional.”

Crawford was not the only legacy media voice to regret their Biden coverage in retrospect. Former CNN anchor Chris Cillizza apologized for not covering Biden with more scrutiny in a recent YouTube video.

Other media luminaries, including former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan and radio talk show host Brian Lehrer, expressed similar regrets to Semafor which the outlet published in a Sunday newsletter.