Jake Tapper’s book tour has turned into an apology tour.
It’s a significant shift in tone from when Tapper announced his book and started hawking it. Back in ancient times–February, if I recall correctly–Tapper was already teasing bits from his and Alex Thompson’s book and was horrified that anybody doubted his integrity.
He had, he assured everybody, been just as hard on Biden as the most skeptical reporters from other outlets.
That didn’t wash, and the backlash got so bad that Tapper had to hire a crisis communications firm. And now we see the results of their massaging of his approach.
On @MegynKelly’s @SiriusXM show, @JakeTapper apologizes to @LaraLeaTrump. Says he “already apologized to her. I called her months ago…I told her ‘you were right.’” pic.twitter.com/0Y43c95xrE
— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) May 20, 2025
There are many examples of Tapper covering for Joe Biden, up to and including attacking anybody who suggested that Biden wasn’t on top of his game. The most famous being his chastising of Lara Trump in disgust, accusing her of attacking the man for a childhood disability.
Here’s Jake Tapper incensed over Joe Biden’s “stutter” and outraged over claims of Biden’s cognitive decline.
Now he’s cashing in on a book about Biden’s cognitive decline and media cover up. There is no bottom for these people.
pic.twitter.com/rdNdqh4YKQ— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 26, 2025
What Tapper is doing is called a “Modified Limited Hangout,” an intelligence technique made famous during the Watergate scandal. What it entails is acknowledging a small truth in order to give credibility to the denial of a larger, more damaging one. “Yes, we did this, but not that.” Or, if you like…
Jake Tapper has been repeating that he “feels humility” about his coverage, whatever that means. It is the classic modified limited hangout–he failed in some unspecified way to be the “best Jake Tapper ever,” but he certainly didn’t do anything wrong like…attack everybody who questioned Joe Biden’s mental acuity.
Yeah, right. It wasn’t just Lara Trump he smeared. He accused the Wall Street Journal of misreporting on Biden because it is a Rupert Murdoch outlet.
Megyn Kelly nails Jake Tapper to the wall here about his participation & complicity in the Biden cover-up.pic.twitter.com/H6AparFdXg
— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) May 20, 2025
As Ed has reminded me more than once, Alex Thompson of Axios did provide more honest coverage of Biden than Tapper, and I assume that he has collaborated with Tapper partly out of class loyalty, and partly out of the recognition–with “humility”–that Tapper is a bankable name while he is less so.
No doubt the book will sell like hotcakes for the obvious reasons: it includes a lot of information you will get nowhere else. This, despite the fact that one of the authors–Jake Tapper–is less honest about his own crimes than the mob informant spilling the beans on his own and others’ crimes.
If this were a real “tell-all” book, Tapper would spill the beans on himself as well as his subjects.
Still, I have to admit that Original Sin makes a serious contribution to the first draft of history. Whether Tapper is honest and his mea culpas complete, we are at least learning who really ran the country during his term.
For those wondering who was in charge while Biden was POTUS, per Tapper & Thompson-
“Five people were running the country, and Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”#OriginalSin pic.twitter.com/o3UGLq2aBq— Jennifer Bukowsky (@esqonfire) May 20, 2025
Five people, who were never elected, and of whom few outside politics had ever heard.
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