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Knicks, Spurs players react as President Trump's Game 3 visit to MSG brings tighter security

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 20:00:40 -0400

Madison Square Garden is not playing around with President Donald Trump's attendance at Game 3.

Security has been amped up, and it's rubbing some players the wrong way as the arena braces for its highest-profile guest yet.

Even NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has expressed appreciation for Trump's attendance, acknowledging it is a bona fide ratings boost.

Players such as Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox and Knicks forward OG Anunoby don't sound nearly as excited.

SECRET SERVICE, TSA AND NYPD TRANSFORM MADISON SQUARE GARDEN INTO FORTRESS FOR TRUMP'S NBA FINALS VISIT

Fox shared ahead of Game 3 in New York City that the heightened security at MSG has become something of a nuisance.

"I think the president being here just makes it inconvenient on everybody else," Fox said Monday. "We got, obviously, more security. We gotta send stuff early. I think our buses are a little earlier."

"We’re getting screened like it’s TSA," Fox added. "It’s a little inconvenient for the people that got to play, but it is what it is."

Fans attending Game 3 will also undergo additional security screenings due to Trump's appearance.

Meanwhile, with Trump set to celebrate his 80th birthday later this week, Anunoby was asked about the president's expected appearance at Game 3.

"He’ll just be there watching the game. We’re going to go as usual, play our game, try to win the game," Anunoby said matter-of-factly.

Given how polarizing Trump remains, attention quickly turned to which NBA players might publicly support his attendance. Others have argued that the president's presence should be treated as an honor.

Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama also became a topic of discussion after standing with his arms folded during the national anthem before Game 1. Trump, however, had no criticism when asked about the moment.

"Wemby’s a great player," Trump said. "I say, ‘How do you guard this guy?’"

While Hart has not publicly commented on Trump's attendance, Knicks guard Josh Hart is among the more outspoken players participating in the Finals. Hart posted a tweet about Trump in November 2020 that read, "YESSIR!!!! GET TRUMP'S DUMBA** OUT THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!"

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The Knicks enter Game 3 with a 2-0 series lead, and history is firmly on their side: teams that take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals go on to win the championship nearly 87% of the time.

Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela

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Scandal-plagued Dem becomes Trump’s measuring stick for Hunter Biden’s 2028 odds

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:33:16 -0400

President Donald Trump entertained the idea of Hunter Biden running for president in 2028, quipping on Thursday that the former first son might have a shot if scandal-plagued candidates like Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner can survive the political spotlight.

"[Hunter Biden's] on social media now, and he has suggested – maybe joking, I don't know – that he could run for president in 2028. How would he do, Hunter Biden, in a 2028 Democratic primary?" 91��' Peter Doocy asked Trump on Thursday.

The former first son became active on X in May, sparking speculation that he is gearing up for a potential run for political office.

"I would say his past is not the greatest," Trump responded.

CARVILLE AVOIDS ADDRESSING CLAIM THAT HUNTER BIDEN 'COULD BE PRESIDENT'

"Hey, if the guy from Maine can do well," the president continued. "Well, I guess Hunter could do well, too, because the guy from Maine is a basket case."

Platner, who Trump was referencing, faces a myriad of campaign controversies stemming from his deleted Reddit account, a Nazi-linked tattoo, hard-drug use, sexting allegations and a newly-released New York Times report detailing his alleged behavior with ex-girlfriends. Biden, meanwhile, has a documented history of drug use and legal troubles, culminating in a sweeping pardon from his father weeks before Trump returned to office.

Despite mounting controversies, Platner remains competitive in polls as he seeks to unseat incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

Trump also compared a potential Hunter Biden 2028 run to James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas.

"And I would say worse than him is the one from Texas that looks like Alfred E. Neuman," he said "I would say that if he can do well, maybe Hunter can do well. I'm not sure, it'll be pretty close as far as I'm concerned."

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS GRAPPLE WITH BIDEN'S LEGACY AS 2028 RACE BEGINS

Trump, speaking to the press during an event focused on the administration's investment in coal energy, also provided some new information about former President Joe Biden’s mental state during a private meeting they held after the 2024 elections.

"President Biden is out promoting a new book this week. When you met with Joe Biden, President Joe Biden, right here in the Oval Office on November the 13th of 2024, could you detect any cognitive decline in President Biden at that time?" a reporter asked.

"No, not really. I mean, he was the same guy I've been watching for a long time," the president answered.

"He was fine as far as I was concerned," Trump said, adding that "I don't know, something happened to him during the debate. It could have been me."

BIDEN 'A LITTLE OLDER AND A LITTLE SLOWER' IN THE FINAL DAYS OF HIS PRESIDENCY: NEW YORK TIMES REPORT

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Trump noted that the elder Biden was "never the sharpest guy."

91�� Digital reached out to representatives for the former president and Hunter Biden on Thursday.

Stephen A Smith calls out Jill Biden, Dems for 'lying through their teeth' and damaging party's brand

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:32:37 -0400

Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith criticized former first lady Jill Biden during a Wednesday episode of his podcast, arguing her public rhetoric was one of many examples of Democrats damaging their party’s brand.

On his "Straight Shooter" podcast, Smith cited her promotion of her new memoir, "View From the East Wing." While Jill Biden was one of many prominent Democrats who initially put on a positive face about former President Joe Biden’s health in 2024, she revealed in her book that she thought he was having a stroke during his disastrous debate against President Donald Trump.

"You had commentators literally say on national television, he looked like an elderly patient in a nursing home waiting for his applesauce to be fed to him," Smith said. "And this woman, his wife, the former first lady, goes out there in front of the microphones with the cameras working and say, ‘You were wonderful. You answered all the questions.’ Really? Really?"

"And then now it's almost two years later and what does she do? With a book to sell, she admits she thought he had a stroke," Smith continued on his podcast. "He was so awful. He was so bad that night. He was so unlike himself. She thought he actually had a stroke."

JILL BIDEN SAYS SHE THOUGHT JOE WAS HAVING A STROKE DURING HIS DISASTROUS 2024 DEBATE PERFORMANCE

Smith also pointed out that it was a badly timed admission for the Democratic Party ahead of November's midterm elections.

"So, in other words, with gubernatorial races set to come about, with mayoral races going coming about, with the midterms coming about, you going to go out there on center stage and admit on behalf of the Democratic Party that you and the rest of them were lying through their teeth," he said. "And you think that's going to help y'all win?"

"What am I missing? This kind of nonsense is what I'm talking about. This is the kind of stuff that's got to be eradicated," Smith said, warning that it was making Republicans confident to run even in historically blue states like California.

Smith rejected the accusation that he was being anti-Democrat by saying such things, saying, "I'm being pro-Democrat. I'm trying to tell you how to win, and how to avoid losing, and looking like a bunch of lying a--es."

FORMER JILL BIDEN SPOKESMAN CLAIMS EX-FIRST LADY IS TRYING TO 'CHANGE THE TAPE' AFTER 2024 DEBATE ADMISSION

Jill Biden congratulated her husband following the 2024 debate, telling the former president at a post-debate campaign event, "Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts!"

However, in her book, she revealed that she and her husband both knew he had botched the performance, and that she initially thought he had a stroke on stage.

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91�� Digital reached out to Biden's office and did not immediately receive a response.

Rahm Emanuel slams DNC autopsy and Jill Biden, saying party now looks 'worse than feckless'

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:38:52 -0400

Former Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel blasted his party's recent election autopsy and the Bidens on Tuesday, saying both have damaged Democrats' brand.

As Emanuel spoke on Katie Couric’s podcast, he stated, as he has before, about the many ways in which he said that Americans feel negatively about the Democratic Party because "we earned their disrespect" with far-left policy agendas.

"We let a border get out of control. When it came to public safety, we talked about defunding the police," he said. "When it came to an ethnic group, we called them Latinx and nobody else in that group ever identified themselves that way. And then rather than worry about classroom excellence, we were worried about bathroom and locker room access."

Couric asked him about the widely panned postmortem from the DNC purporting to explain why the Democrats lost in 2024, noting, "It didn’t really talk about the administration's stance on Israel and the war in Gaza and Joe Biden's age, which seems to be two big flashing red lights."

RAHM EMANUEL WARNS DEMS HAVE BECOME PARTY OF 'PUNKS' WHO 'TALK DOWN TO PEOPLE' AND FRET OVER IDENTITY POLITICS

Emanuel recalled that he had joked that one could get a more thorough autopsy of the election from a literal coroner than from Democratic Party leadership who commissioned the postmortem analysis, adding, "It was a waste of money and a waste of time."

"It just makes the Democrats look so feckless," Couric said.

"It's worse than feckless," Emanuel replied, saying that Biden very strongly implied that he would commit to being a one-term president who would serve as a transition to the next generation.

"The Oval Office is incredibly seductive and he got seduced, and the White House is incredibly insular and it was really a tight-knit group," he said, proceeding to call out his family and his staff.

"The staff owed an honest come to Jesus with both the president and the first lady, and they knew the truth, you know, all the truths working in the White House and they knew all the truths and they had a responsibility both to him and to the country," he said.

Couric brought up Jill Biden’s book, one in which the first lady revealed she thought Joe Biden was having a stroke during his 2024 debate, "Which is not particularly helpful to the Democratic Party right now, I’m assuming, to go back in history."

"Lemme help you on the 'doubt' part of that, or the ‘not sure.’ It does not help," Emanuel said, agreeing firmly with Couric's assessment of of Jill Biden’s comments.

CHARLAMAGNE RIPS JILL BIDEN’S CONFESSIONS ABOUT HER HUSBAND AS TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

He went on to argue that the staff owed both Joe Biden and Jill Biden a "come to Jesus" and said that Jill Biden’s promotion of her new book is not helpful for the party.

He went on to argue that Jill "100%" should have stepped in to stop her husband from seeking reelection.

"Did she have a responsibility? Yes, she had a responsibility." He said. "The staff had a responsibility. The Cabinet had a responsibility."

Couric replied, "I know we don't want to keep rehashing this, but it does make me sad for Joe Biden because he has been a public servant for decades, and I feel like he's destroyed his legacy."

91�� Digital reached out to Joe Biden's office and did not receive an immediate reply.

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Jill Biden tells memoir critic, 'Say it to my face, buddy'

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:46:38 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden pushed back on Democratic critics of her memoir who say the book needlessly dredges up controversies from the 2024 election.

Biden made the comment during an event promoting her book, "View from the East Wing," in New York City on Wednesday. She was asked specifically about comments from former Biden White House spokesman Andrew Bates, who said of her book, "I don’t see why that painful conversation for the party needed to be publicly reopened right now," according to the New York Post.

"I want to say to Andrew: Call me up, and say it to my face, buddy," Biden responded, going on to argue that her book had only "one chapter on politics."

Biden then discussed the 2024 election more generally, touching on everything from former President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance that June to her own thoughts about the aging president's decision to run again.

INSIDE JILL BIDEN'S POLITICAL RISE AMID HER HUSBAND'S COGNITIVE DECLINE: BOOK

She argued she would have been honest with her husband had she seen his condition prior to the debate, but she said she wasn't there for his debate preparations.

"I was out campaigning," she said. "So I didn’t see him at debate camp at Camp David."

"I never wanted to see that moment again in my life but since I’ve been doing press for two days, they’re like, ‘Watch this clip,’" she said.

LIZ PEEK: BIDEN CANCER ANNOUNCEMENT HAS MY SYMPATHY AND MY SKEPTICISM

"I saw Joe aging. My God, we all saw him aging," she admitted.

Her comments came just a day after she made headlines during an interview on "The View" where she acknowledged that her husband would not have been able to serve another four years.

"The View" co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked Jill Biden if she thought her husband would have been in a good place to serve another four years in the White House.

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"Well, not from what I know now," Biden said. "My God. Who knew? It was so shocking to get that cancer diagnosis. I mean, we had, you know, here I was, I’m looking through travel magazines like, ‘Oh, where are we going to go? What are we going to do,’ and then we get this cancer diagnosis and I think, what am I doing? Like, our whole life has changed now. It was just shocking."

President Trump questions why Jill and Joe Biden went to a Waffle House after she feared stroke

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:54:54 -0400

President Donald Trump questioned why former first lady Jill Biden and former President Joe Biden went to Waffle House after the infamous 2024 debate during an interview on Wednesday, after Jill recently revealed she worried that Joe was having a stroke on stage.

"People saw him before the debate, and he was fine," Trump began as "Pod Force One" host Miranda Devine noted that Jill and Joe went to a Waffle House in Georgia after the debate ended. "I wouldn't say it was Winston Churchill, but he was fine. He was all right."

"Yeah. I mean, so she said he had a stroke, but why would she bring him to a Waffle House if he had a stroke?" Trump added.

LIBERAL CNN ANCHOR LASHES OUT AT DEMOCRATS' DECEIT AFTER JILL BIDEN'S ADMISSION ABOUT JOE'S DEBATE SHOWING

Devine asked if first lady Melania Trump would have allowed him to go to a Waffle House if she thought he suffered a stroke, and Trump said, "even in good times, she wouldn't."

"Although I would actually, it's not so bad," he quipped.

In her book, "View from the East Wing: A Memoir," Jill wrote in reaction to the debate, "To this day, I still don’t know what happened. Why wasn’t he making any sense? It was inexplicable to me. The only other time he’d sounded like that was right after he’d had surgery. I wish I’d thought of asking for a blood test, just so we’d know what was in his system."

During an appearance on MS NOW's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, Biden said her husband was checked by doctors after the performance and before heading to their other events.

JILL BIDEN ADMITS JOE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SERVE ANOTHER FOUR YEARS

"And then we got off the stage and, you know, I went to get my stuff. He was checked out by the doctors. They said he’s fine. We went on to do three more events that night, and Joe was like he always was," she said.

She explained her fear of Joe having a stroke during a CBS interview last week, which was also included in her memoir.

"Joe had something nonsensical about beating Medicare. Is he short-circuiting? I thought. Is this a stroke?" she wrote. "It felt like we’re watching an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching. Has he been drugged? Oh God — will people watching assume that this is how he is all the time?"

Jill has done multiple interviews about her new book, which was released on Tuesday.

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She said during "The View" on Tuesday that her husband would not have been in a good place to serve a second term had he remained in the race and won, citing his cancer diagnosis.

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Biden crashes Jill’s book tour with awkward ‘love’ question that leaves viewers cringing

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:18:19 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden was interrupted by a surprise appearance from former President Joe Biden during a New York stop promoting her memoir Tuesday, leading to an awkward exchange with moderator Whoopi Goldberg that quickly drew reaction online.

"Joe has a question. Like you couldn't ask it later," joked Jill Biden as the former president emerged from the audience.

"Who do you love most in the whole world?" asked Joe Biden.

"Whoopi," the former first lady responded, laughing.

JOE AND JILL BIDEN RUN TO FRIENDLY SHOW FOR FIRST POST-WHITE HOUSE INTERVIEW. YES, IT'S 'THE VIEW'

The former president was seen shrugging after his wife's quip.

Jill Biden has been touring the country to promote her memoir, "View from the East Wing," revealing new details about her relationship with her husband.

The former first lady is striking a markedly different tone from her previous staunch defense of her husband during his disastrous 2024 re-election run, recently saying during the book tour that she feared he was suffering from a medical issue during his June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump.

"I wasn’t horrified, I was frightened," Jill Biden recalled. "I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ It scared me to death," she said.

NYT WRITERS RIDICULED FOR SAYING DISASTROUS BIDEN DEBATE ENDED IN 'DRAW' AS JILL BIDEN FEARED HE HAD A STROKE

Social media users quickly lambasted the Bidens for the awkward exchange with Goldberg, weighing in on the couple’s relationship and sharing their thoughts on the former president’s health.

"Staged and still sad," said one user on X.

"So painful to watch," wrote a user.

"The dementia is kicking in hard," a user jabbed.

"The man ran the free world for four years and still needs verbal reassurance at a book signing," wrote one person.

"I'd like to think that he just wandered in and wasn't actually invited to the event," poked a user.

"How embarrassing," commented an X user.

JILL BIDEN SHOULD HAVE TO ANSWER FOR 'COVER UP' OF FORMER PRESIDENT'S DECLINE, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

The veteran lawmaker served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before becoming vice president under President Barack Obama, serving two consecutive terms.

His political career came to an abrupt end at the height of his re-election campaign when he suspended his bid following intensified scrutiny of a series of verbal missteps and public gaffes.

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91�� Digital reached out to the Office of Jill and Joe Biden for comment.

Jill Biden confronted on touting Joe's debate showing despite thinking he may have had a stroke onstage

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:54:14 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden was confronted during a Monday interview on why she touted her husband's debate performance immediately after his disastrous 2024 showdown with President Donald Trump, despite her worrying at the time that former President Joe Biden had a stroke.

On NBC's "Today," co-host Craig Melvin confronted Jill Biden with a clip from after the debate in which she praised her husband in front of a group of supporters for answering all the debate questions.

"And in the days and weeks after that, you continued to insist that the president was fine," Melvin said. "How — how do you square thinking that he may have had a stroke with what you were saying in the days and weeks after? How do you square those two?"

Biden said she saw that Joe appeared to be OK and noted that he acknowledged he had messed up as they prepared to go to another event.

FORMER JILL BIDEN SPOKESMAN CLAIMS EX-FIRST LADY IS TRYING TO 'CHANGE THE TAPE' AFTER 2024 DEBATE ADMISSION

"I know we're going into another event, or we have two more to do, and I'm, my mind is racing," Biden said. "What do I say to him? What do I say to him? I'm his wife, I've got to lift him up. So, we go to the next event and I'm thinking, 'What do I say that will lift him up that is true?' I want to say the things that are true. And so I said, you know, 'You answered every question.'"

Melvin noted, "That's a pretty low bar."

"Well, and so, you know, I had to sort of lift him up," Biden continued. "I mean, I'm his wife. I'm not going to get out on the stage there and say, 'Joe, you really screwed that up.' I mean, and we have all our supporters there. So, you know, that was my, that's who we are. I mean, I had to support him. I couldn't come out and I mean, really, publicly say, 'Joe, you did a terrible job in that debate.'"

WHAT TO DO IF SOMEONE IS HAVING A STROKE, AFTER JILL BIDEN REVEALED DEBATE-NIGHT FEARS

During an interview that aired last week, the former first lady revealed that she thought her husband was having a stroke during the debate in 2024.

"I wasn’t horrified, I was frightened," Biden recalled in a recent interview.

"I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ It scared me to death," she said.

The former president's debate performance ultimately led to his decision to drop out of the race. Melvin also confronted Jill Biden on whether she wished she would have encouraged him to just serve one term as president.

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"You're his closest confidant. You're described as Joe's gut check. If you could go back in a time machine and do it all over again, would you have encouraged him, maybe, to not run again?" Melvin asked.

Jill responded, "You know, as I look back, would I want to put Joe through the hurt and the pain that we felt during that time? Never."

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"But it had to be his decision, Craig," she said. "It had to be his decision alone, because he had to live with that decision the rest of his life. I couldn't say, 'Joe, do this' or 'Joe, do that.' It was his decision to run in the first place — only his — even though the family had their input, especially the grandchildren. But, you know, it was his decision to get out."

NYT writers ridiculed for saying disastrous Biden debate ended in 'draw' as Jill Biden feared he had a stroke

Fri, 29 May 2026 19:37:29 -0400

Two New York Times columnists are getting pummeled by critics for their poorly-aged ruling of the infamous Trump-Biden debate after former first lady Jill Biden claimed she thought her husband was "having a stroke."

Then-President Joe Biden shocked the nation in June 2024 with his disastrous debate performance, resulting in his exit from the presidential race weeks later.

"I don't know what happened," Jill Biden told CBS News this week. "I mean, when I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he's having a stroke,’ and it scared me to death."

The Atlantic also reported an excerpt from her forthcoming book that she thought her husband might've been "drugged."

FORMER BIDEN AIDES ‘DON’T BELIEVE' JILL BIDEN, ARE ANGRY OVER EX-FIRST LADY'S DEBATE COMMENTS, REPORTER SAYS

What has since resurfaced in the wake of her comments were the charitable takeaways from two Times columnists from Biden's ill-fated debate.

"Well, we had a raspy and stumbling President Biden and a deranged and incoherent Donald Trump, who spent two hours unleashing a stream of lies. Is there a winner here? Nah," Times columnist Jamelle Bouie said at the time.

SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS AFTER JILL BIDEN REVEALS SHE WAS 'HORRIFIED' WATCHING JOE'S DISASTROUS DEBATE

"No one won this debate, but there is no question who lost: anyone who plans to cast a ballot for president in November," fellow Times columnist Lydia Polgreen wrote.

"It was a debacle for Biden. He was barely audible at times. He flubbed answers on his strongest issues, from abortion to democracy. Trump just lied, lied and lied, and no one — certainly not the moderators and, worse, not even Biden — rebutted him in the smallest way. Trump blustered and glowered. He attacked Biden viciously and looked like a bully. This is the choice Americans are facing. This was a disaster for America."

Bouie and Polgreen were greatly outnumbered by their ten colleagues, all of whom declared Trump the winner of the debate.

"Biden's own wife thought he was having a stroke. Two NY Times columnists insisted he'd fought Trump to a draw," National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin wrote, sharing an image of the Times' scoring chart on X.

McLaughlin's post went viral, fueling other critics to weigh in.

"Positive spin: Even while having a [stroke], or possibly drugged, Biden miraculously fought Trump to a draw!" The Atlantic's Ashley Parker joked.

"I think of this chart all the time lol," CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski reacted.

"Hahaha!" replied "Ruthless" podcast co-host Josh Holmes.

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"Too funny," Washington Post columnist and 91�� contributor Mac Thiessen said.

91�� Digital asked Bouie and Polgreen whether they stand by their ruling or have changed their minds since the debate. Neither responded to requests for comment.

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Jake Tapper disputes Jill Biden's claim she feared for husband's health at CNN debate

Fri, 29 May 2026 17:00:17 -0400

CNN host Jake Tapper, who moderated the infamous 2024 debate that torpedoed then-President Joe Biden, said in a video posted Thursday that former first lady Jill Biden didn't act like there was anything wrong with her husband when she spoke with the moderators afterward.

Jill Biden said in a new interview that she was afraid her husband was having a stroke during the debate, but that stunning declaration has been met with fierce pushback across the political spectrum.

"I should also disclose that I was one of the two moderators at the debate, and after it, she and the president walked over to the table and they didn't act as if anything significant had just happened at all. They made polite chitchat. She certainly didn't act like somebody who was worried that her husband had just had a stroke," he said in a post to his Instagram.

SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS AFTER JILL BIDEN REVEALS SHE WAS 'HORRIFIED' WATCHING JOE'S DISASTROUS DEBATE

Tapper co-moderated the debate in June 2024 alongside CNN's Dana Bash. The former first lady's shocking revelation that she was worried her husband had a stroke during the debate has faced scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans.

At the start of the short video posted by CNN, Tapper said, "Now, she tells us, that's the response from lots of Democrats to former first lady Jill Biden, finally admitting that her husband's debate performance in June 2024 was so bad that, in her words, she at the time was frightened that President Biden was having a stroke on stage."

Jill Biden was asked by CBS about what she thought happened the night of the debate and said she felt frightened watching her husband, whose raspy voice, halting answers and blank looks set off a panic in his party.

"I don't know what happened," the former first lady replied. "I mean, when I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he's having a stroke,’ and it scared me to death."

But the night of the debate, the former first lady put on a far different face for the camera. She went with him to a local Waffle House and cheerfully greeted her husband on stage at the debate's after-party in front of a live audience, giving praise with such a low bar that it itself became a news story.

CNN HOST SUGGESTS ROBERT HUR 'UNDERSOLD' EXTENT OF BIDEN MEMORY LAPSES DURING SPECIAL COUNSEL INTERVIEW

"Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts," she said.

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CNN host Abby Phillip slammed the Democratic Party after Jill Biden's admission on Wednesday.

"I appreciate that we now get to see at least some version of a truth that she’s putting out there, because I think, yeah, the conversation should be had about the deceptiveness that was behind this," Phillip said during her show. "Like, that’s the conversation that I think ought to be had.

"The autopsy that the Democrats did didn’t delve into that, but it should. What kind of political system covers that up and makes it OK to lie to people about what everybody knows is true?"

91�� Digital reached out to Joe Biden for comment.

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Tapper co-authored a book, "Original Sin," that investigated an alleged cover-up by President Biden's inner circle of his mental and cognitive decline in office that culminated in him being replaced on the 2024 Democratic ticket by Kamala Harris.

Charlamagne rips Jill Biden’s confessions about her husband as too little, too late

Fri, 29 May 2026 08:23:15 -0400

Radio host Charlamagne tha God called out former first lady Jill Biden, the Bidens’ inner circle and the entire Democratic Party, saying Thursday they damaged democracy itself by concealing concerns about former President Joe Biden’s purported cognitive decline.

One of the most decisive moments of the 2024 election was Biden's disastrous debate with then-candidate Donald Trump. Biden stammered, had long periods of silence and intense, confused facial expressions, to the point where some of his most vocal supporters broke ranks and demanded he relinquish the nomination. The Atlantic obtained a copy of the former first lady’s memoir, "View From the East Wing," which will be released in early June. In it, she revealed that she and Biden both agreed that he had "f---ed up" that night.

"Literally, donkey of the day should go to Jill Biden, the Democratic Party, Biden's inner circle, the staff, the record label, the mother effing crew and everybody who spent years telling Americans not to believe their own eyes," Charlamagne said.

SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS AFTER JILL BIDEN REVEALS SHE WAS 'HORRIFIED' WATCHING JOE'S DISASTROUS DEBATE

Charlamagne specifically responded to a clip of Jill Biden in an interview with "CBS News Sunday Morning" that previewed Wednesday, when she said, "I don't know what happened," and that "I mean, when I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he's having a stroke,’ and it scared me to death."

One telling contradiction between how Jill Biden now says she felt that night and the public face she presented afterward was how she praised Biden for his performance at a post-debate event.

"Not right now," Charlamagne said wearily, noting numerous concerns he, his staff, and Americans in general are facing, arguing of such revelations, "It's just too much going on right now for you to be confirming what so many of us already knew and said, but got crucified for it."

CHARLAMAGNE CONFRONTS EX-DNC CHAIR FOR FAILING TO 'TELL THE TRUTH' ABOUT BIDEN'S DECLINE

Charlamagne went on to clarify that this ultimately is not about aging or health scares, but rather, "This is about honesty, and Jill Biden and Democrats weren't honest, and that's one of the main reasons we are currently in the situation we are in right now."

This, he said, was one of many areas where Biden failed to make the most of his term to protect American democracy, such as eliminating the filibuster, expanding the Supreme Court, passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and passing the Freedom to Vote Act. "Those were the things that needed to be done to protect democracy," he said.

"Add the lies sold to the American people about President Biden to that list, alright?" he said.

"This is why Americans have trust issues with politicians. OK? You tell us we don't feel what we feel, and we don't see what we see," he said. "Once again, this wasn't about Biden being old, OK? It wasn't even about this debate. It was a trust issue. All right? You dismissed voters’ concerns about Biden's age and health for years instead of addressing them honestly."

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He added, "Poll after poll showed voters worried about his health and mental sharpness long before the debate, and y'all told us ‘he was just jet-lagged.’ ‘He had a cold.' All of y'all treated the truthful, honest criticism like it was disloyalty. No, it was reality."

91�� Digital reached out to former President Biden for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Former Biden aides 'don't believe' Jill Biden, are angry over ex-first lady's debate comments, reporter says

Thu, 28 May 2026 20:00:58 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden is now the target of ire among former Biden administration officials on Thursday for her recent comments expressing the shock she said she had while watching her husband's now-infamous debate performance.

Alex Thompson, the Axios reporter who co-wrote "Original Sin," the book released last year that delved into former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline scandal, said he's been flooded with reactions from members of Biden's orbit after Jill Biden began speaking out about her husband's struggle to speak coherently at the CNN debate against then-former President Donald Trump.

She told CBS News she thought her husband was "having a stroke" or might have been "drugged," according to The Atlantic, ahead of the release of her forthcoming memoir.

"Well, a lot of Democrats, including several Biden aides that I’ve talked to since yesterday when this interview came out, just simply don’t believe her," Thompson told CNN's Brianna Keilar.

SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS AFTER JILL BIDEN REVEALS SHE WAS 'HORRIFIED' WATCHING JOE'S DISASTROUS DEBATE

Thompson pointed out how Jill Biden appeared alongside her husband at a post-debate rally and seemed to act as everything was normal the following day carrying on with other campaign events.

"And a lot of former Biden aides, you know, have told me if you really believed he might be having a stroke, that it’s not necessarily the same behavior that you would do. There’s no evidence that there was any significant medical exam afterward," Thompson said before acknowledging she suggested her husband take a cognitive exam but was overruled by his advisors, per The Atlantic.

He continued, "And, you know, a lot of Democrats think that this is simply unhelpful to come out at this moment and try to rewrite this portion of history... I have to say that there is a significant skepticism that she is trying to rewrite this narrative right now."

LIBERAL CNN ANCHOR LASHES OUT AT DEMOCRATS' DECEIT AFTER JILL BIDEN'S ADMISSION ABOUT JOE'S DEBATE SHOWING

The Axios reporter revisited his own reporting, which showed Biden aides had witnessed the former president the way he appeared at the debate months prior, insisting it wasn't a one-off as Jill Biden told CBS News. He also cited Joe Biden's interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur, where his memory issues also surfaced. Yet Biden's "inner circle" kept saying he was fine.

"They just feel that the inner circle gaslit them," Thompson said.

"I've been surprised by the level of anger and frustration that I've heard from former Biden aides towards the former first lady in the last 24 hours," he added.

Thompson previously posted on X that one former Biden official told him, "she’s lying."

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Jill Biden reveals Joe whispered 'I really f---ed up' after disastrous debate with Trump

Thu, 28 May 2026 17:38:48 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden revealed Thursday that both she and then-President Joe Biden were well aware of how disastrous his 2024 presidential debate was, to the point Jill thought he had been drugged.

One of the most decisive moments of the 2024 election was Biden's debate with then-candidate Donald Trump. Biden stammered, had long periods of silence and intense, confused facial expressions, to the point some of his most vocal supporters broke ranks and demanded he relinquish the nomination.

The Atlantic obtained a copy of the former first lady’s new memoir, "View From the East Wing," which will be released in early June. In it, she revealed that both she and her husband knew full well that it had not gone according to plan.

She noted that when Biden walked off the debate stage that evening, he whispered to her, "I really f---ed up, didn’t I?" she wrote. "‘Yes, you did,’ I whispered back."

HUNTER BIDEN SAYS FATHER WAS ON AMBIEN BEFORE DISASTROUS DEBATE, DEFENDS PAINTING SALES

"Nothing explained what I was seeing," Jill wrote of Biden’s "strangely monochromatic" visage and poor performance that night. "To this day, I still don’t know what happened. Why wasn’t he making any sense? It was inexplicable to me."

"Later, after positing that he may have unwittingly taken codeine cough syrup or Ambien to fight off a cold or to help him sleep, Jill Biden seems to rhetorically throw her hands in the air," The Atlantic summarized. The outlet also reported that Jill wished she had her husband take a blood test after the debate and even pushed for him to take a cognitive test to calm concerns about his mental acuity, but was overruled by his advisors.

Jill noted that she would leave inspirational or blunt notes for her husband during his presidency, including "You are my hero" and "Get up, champ. Get up." She even recalled writing him notes on foreign policy, like "Net has to stop" or "Be strong, Don’t let BN use your goodness," referring to Biden’s efforts to negotiate with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over military actions in Gaza.

LIBERAL CNN ANCHOR LASHES OUT AT DEMOCRATS' DECEIT AFTER JILL BIDEN'S ADMISSION ABOUT JOE'S DEBATE SHOWING

She shared similar comments in an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning that previewed Wednesday.

"I don't know what happened," Jill said in the interview. "I mean, when I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he's having a stroke,’ and it scared me to death."

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But the night of the debate, the former first lady appeared to be putting on a very different face for the camera. She cheerfully greeted her husband at a post-debate event and praised his performance.

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"Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts!" Jill Biden said.

Liberal CNN anchor lashes out at Democrats' deceit after Jill Biden's admission about Joe's debate showing

Thu, 28 May 2026 13:00:13 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden was lambasted by critics Wednesday over her admission in a new interview that she thought former President Joe Biden was having a stroke during his infamous 2024 debate. One of those critiques came from CNN's Abby Phillip, who called out the deceptiveness of Democrats at the time.

Phillip said during her show, "I appreciate that we now get to see at least some version of a truth that she’s putting out there, because I think, yeah, the conversation should be had about the deceptiveness that was behind this. Like that’s the conversation that I think ought to be had."

"The autopsy that the Democrats did didn’t delve into that, but it should. What kind of political system covers that up? And makes it OK to lie to people about what everybody knows is true?" she asked.

Biden spoke to CBS News ahead of the release of her new book and was asked by Rita Braver if she was horrified by what she saw unfold in the debate, which ultimately led to the former president getting forced out of the race.

SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS AFTER JILL BIDEN REVEALS SHE WAS 'HORRIFIED' WATCHING JOE'S DISASTROUS DEBATE

"I wasn't horrified, I was frightened," Jill Biden replied. "Because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since."

"I don't know what happened," she said, responding to a question about what happened. "I mean, as I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he's having a stroke,’ and it scared me to death."

Right afterward, however, the then-first lady gushed over her husband's performance in front of supporters. However, the debate set off a chain reaction of panic in the Democratic Party that led to the president leaving the 2024 race. He was replaced as the Democratic nominee by Vice President Kamala Harris, who went on to lose the general election.

Phillip also noted that The Wall Street Journal had released a report about former President Biden's health and was attacked viciously by the White House at the time.

Another panelist, podcast host Kmele Foster, argued that the next question in the interview, which will air on CBS "Sunday Morning" in full on Sunday, should be about why she lied at the time.

JILL BIDEN SHOULD HAVE TO ANSWER FOR 'COVER UP' OF FORMER PRESIDENT'S DECLINE, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

"What I‘m concerned about, the thing I‘m wondering is what the next question in that interview is, because it ought to be ‘So why did you lie at the time?’ And I‘m not certain that that‘s what‘s going to be asked. If I could wager out this on Polymarket, I probably wouldn‘t bet in favor of that question being asked, which I think is an indictment of our industry," Foster said.

JOE AND JILL BIDEN FIRE BACK ON 'THE VIEW' AGAINST ACCUSATIONS OF HEALTH COVER-UP, CALL STORIES 'WRONG'

Biden is releasing a new book on June 2, titled "View from the East Wing: A Memoir."

Biden was called out by both sides over the admission, as many pointed to her statements and defense that immediately followed the debate.

Conservative commentator Kevin Dalton followed up on Thomson’s observation by noting that Jill Biden’s alarm seemed to have been absent in the moments immediately following the debate.

"Of course, moments after the debate a clearly not frightened Jill Biden praised Joe for answering all the debate questions like a toddler," Dalton said.

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"Sorry, but this is such BS. If she genuinely was ‘frightened’ that he was having a stroke then any rational wife would have insisted he go straight to the hospital," New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said on X. "Instead she dragged him off to a Waffle House and patronized him on stage like a baby: ‘Joe – you did such a great job.’ We saw his incapacity for years. Don't try to rewrite history."

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"This woman is pure evil. And an awful liar," OutKick founder Clay Travis posted on X.

91��' Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

Social media erupts after Jill Biden reveals she was 'frightened' watching Joe's disastrous debate

Thu, 28 May 2026 06:30:04 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden is raising eyebrows online for comments she made to CBS, recounting the alarm she felt in 2024 as she watched then-President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump.

"I wasn’t horrified, I was frightened," Jill Biden recalled in a recent interview.

"I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ It scared me to death."

The former first lady’s recollections are just the most recent in a long line of commentary surrounding Joe Biden’s debate — a performance Republicans pointed to as evidence that the president, then 81, had declined too much to continue as the nation’s commander in chief.

FLASHBACK: THE DEBATE NIGHT AGAINST TRUMP THAT THREW BIDEN'S REELECTION CAMPAIGN INTO A FREE FALL

During that debate, Joe Biden had whispered his way through questions, famously saying his administration had "defeated Medicaid," and repeatedly lost his train of thought.

Democrats maintained that the debate was an outlier, a momentary lapse for an otherwise capable Joe Biden.

Even as Jill Biden’s comments seemed to continue to make that case almost two years later, Alex Thompson, an Axios reporter, shed doubt on her characterization.

"Biden aides told Jake Tapper and me that they had seen him act that way before and after. Those moments became more difficult to predict and conceal," Thompson said, referring to comments gathered during the writing of "Original Sin," a book covering President Biden’s decline.

'ORIGINAL SIN' CO-AUTHOR EXPOSES 'FRANTIC EFFORTS' TO HIDE BIDEN'S COGNITIVE DECLINE

"And Jill joined Biden for several campaign events after the debate, including a rally the next day," Thompson added.

Conservative commentator Kevin Dalton followed up Thomson’s observation by noting that Jill Biden’s alarm seemed to have been absent in the moments immediately following the debate.

"Of course, moments after the debate a clearly not frightened Jill Biden praised Joe for answering all the debate questions like a toddler," Dalton said.

"Sorry but this is such BS. If she genuinely was ‘frightened’ that he was having a stroke then any rational wife would have insisted he go straight to the hospital," New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said on X. "Instead she dragged him off to a Waffle House and patronized him on stage like a baby: ‘Joe – you did such a great job.’ We saw his incapacity for years. Don't try to rewrite history."

"This woman is pure evil. And an awful liar," OutKick founder Clay Travis posted on X.

"Jill Biden was SO concerned her husband had a stroke during the debate she started a ‘4 more years’ chant right after. What a power hungry sociopath," 91�� host Jimmy Failla posted on X.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that he recalled marveling at just how bad the president’s delivery had been.

"Jill Biden thought her husband was having a stroke the night he debated Donald Trump in 2024. I kept wondering whether someone had drugged him," Lee said in a post of his own.

Benny Johnson, a conservative media personality, bashed Jill Biden, arguing that her own characterization of the moment was evidence that she knew the president’s condition was worse than she was letting on.

JILL BIDEN SHOULD HAVE TO ANSWER FOR 'COVER UP' OF FORMER PRESIDENT'S DECLINE, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

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"She covered it up. She didn’t tell the American people. She didn’t pull him from the race. She kept playing puppet master with the presidency," Johnson said.

"This woman let a man she believed was having a stroke continue as president of the United States. Can chalk this up as another case of elder abuse and another cover-up on the Democrats' roster," he added.

Jill Biden says she thought Joe was having a stroke during his disastrous 2024 debate performance

Wed, 27 May 2026 18:41:47 -0400

Former first lady Jill Biden spoke in an interview clip released Wednesday about former President Joe Biden’s infamous debate performance in 2024, saying she thought he was having a stroke on stage.

"Were you horrified as you saw it unfold?" Jill Biden was asked by a CBS host.

NEW BOOK REVEALS WHAT TOP EX-BIDEN AIDE WAS THINKING DURING DISASTROUS DEBATE

"I wasn't horrified, I was frightened," Jill replied. "Because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since."

The former first lady insisted again that even as Biden has gotten older, she has never seen him in a similar state.

"What happened?" the interviewer asked, wondering what was wrong with Joe Biden that one particular night.

EX-BIDEN CAMPAIGN STAFFER SLAMS FORMER PRESIDENT'S TEAM FOR KNOWING HE WAS 'NOT CAPABLE,' FEELS 'LIED TO'

"I don't know what happened," Jill replied. "I mean, when I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he's having a stroke,’ and it scared me to death."

But the night of the debate, the former first lady appeared to be putting on a very different face for the camera. She had cheerfully greeted her husband on stage at the debate's after-party in front of a live audience, giving praise with such a low bar that it itself became a news story.

"Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts!" Jill Biden cheered to a smiling Joe Biden on-stage.

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"And let me ask the crowd. "What did Trump do?" the first lady continued, turning to the audience before shouting along with them, "Lie!"

Numerous commentators skewered this moment, saying that Jill had praised the then-President of the United States as if she were praising a small child.

Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon accuses critics of having ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 09:00:07 -0400

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said critics who disapprove of the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the federal department suffer from what she described as "Trump Derangement Syndrome."

McMahon discussed her unusual mandate from President Donald Trump to fire herself by eliminating the department and how politics should be handled in the classroom during an appearance on "Planet Tyrus."

"I think there is some 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' out there that they just have to push back automatically about it, and, ‘How crazy are you to think that you can do away, if you will, with the Department of Education?’" she told host Tyrus on his podcast this week.

Trump intends to shutter the Department of Education during his presidency, claiming that individual states can handle responsibilities without federal oversight.

SEC. MCMAHON RESPONDS TO NEWSOM'S OFFICE USING WWE CLIP MOCK TITLE IX ENFORCEMENT AMID TRANS ATHLETE FEUD

McMahon revealed that when Trump offered her the role of education secretary, he encouraged her to fire herself.

"When he called and asked me to take on this job, he said, ‘Look, you're going to be successful when you fire yourself.’ And I said, ‘OK,’" she said. "And he said, ‘If everything works the way we want it to, you will be the last secretary of education.’ And I said, ‘Do you know what? It's a challenge, but I think it's the right thing to do.’"

McMahon studied to become a French teacher but never taught in a classroom. Instead, she co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) with her husband, Vince McMahon, and left the company in 2009 to pursue politics.

TRUMP ADMIN CUTS RED TAPE AS IOWA JOINS EFFORT TO RETURN EDUCATION TO STATES

She argued that the federal Department of Education is unnecessary, citing that it's been operating since 1980.

"1980, and before that, the Title I funding was there, special needs funding was there — all of that was in place, and it managed to get done."

McMahon claimed her efforts to downsize the department will save taxpayers millions of dollars annually.

MCMAHON RECOUNTS STORY OF REASSURING PARENT OF SPECIAL NEEDS THAT FUNDING WILL CONTINUE AS DEPARTMENT SHRINKS

"We're relocating to a smaller building. So, we're going to save taxpayers about $4.5 million a year just relocating to a smaller building," she said.

The education secretary also discussed the positive role politics can play in a classroom if executed fairly, recalling a personal experience.

During the 1960 presidential election between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon, McMahon said her teacher asked her to debate for the candidate she opposed.

"He said, ‘Who do you hope wins the election?’ And I said, ‘Well, I really do hope that Mr. Nixon wins the election, and here's why.’ And he said, ‘OK, so we're gonna have a debate in class, but you're gonna have to debate for Kennedy,’" McMahon explained.

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"I had to debate the opposite side, and then the class voted as to which one, and I thought, that's the way you ought to teach."

Watch McMahon’s full conversation with Tyrus on the "Planet Tyrus" on YouTube.

Jones and Miyares clash over murder texts as Dem repeatedly invokes Trump at heated, high-stakes debate

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 20:12:09 -0400

Virginia Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones defended himself from questions about controversial texts envisioning the murder of the Old Dominion’s then-Republican House Speaker.

And Attorney General Jason Miyares questioned Jones' ability to govern while Jones repeatedly invoked President Donald Trump and salivated over seeing him in court during a debate at the University of Richmond sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association Young Lawyers Section.

Jones offered regret over his words in those texts but repeatedly pivoted from Miyares’ criticisms to pledge to spend his four years fighting Trump in court and faulting Miyares for being friendly with the Floridian mogul.

"He’s asking you to hire him to be the top prosecutor, but he’s never prosecuted a day in his life," Miyares said of Jones, calling him "anti-police" and "anti-victim" for votes to pull school resource officers out of schools.

Miyares attributed Jones’ reported support for ending the mandatory reporting requirement of sexual assaults in schools to conditions that led to related controversies in Loudoun County schools.

WATCH: KAINE DEFENDS JONES AMID AG CANDIDATE’S TEXTS ENVISIONING MURDER OF GOP LEADER: ‘STILL A SUPPORTER’

Pivoting to Jones’ texts, Miyares said Virginians have "seen a window into who Jay Jones is and what he thinks of people who disagree with him"

He quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying that "character is what you do in the dark when no one is watching" and said Jones’ invective was spurred by something as simple as Republican leader Todd Gilbert offering kind words about Del. Joe Johnson, D-Bristol, after the elderly moderate died.

In turn, Jones said he wants to bring progress, opportunity and safety to Virginia and accused Miyares of being too cozy with Trump, invoking the president’s name more than about two dozen times.

LIBERAL MEDIA DOWNPLAYS SCANDAL OF DEM VIRGINIA AG HOPEFUL JAY JONES' TEXTS FANTASIZING MURDER OF GOP LAWMAKER

He repeatedly said he "cannot wait" to see Trump in court and claimed Miyares has abandoned Virginians by not repeatedly filing suits as other state attorneys general have for a potpourri of reasons.

Addressing the texts, he said he is "ashamed. I am embarrassed, and I am sorry. I am sorry to Speaker Gilbert. I am sorry to his family. And I am sorry to every single Virginian."

"This race has always been about more — when Donald Trump fires workers, defunds our schools, armed troops into cities. He has a willing cheerleader in Jason Miyares," Jones said.

‘CONSUMED WITH HATE’: WINSOME SEARS, JASON MIYARES UNLOAD ON DEMOCRAT JAY JONES OVER VIOLENT TEXTS

"[Miyares is] the only statewide elected official to receive that endorsement."

Jones said Miyares will see the president at "MAGA rallies" but that Jones will see him in court.

When Miyares brought up Jay's reckless driving charge — after a 116 mph speeding ticket on I-64 in New Kent, Virginia — Jones said he was held accountable by the Virginia State Police.

VIRGINIA DEM JAY JONES’ FATHERHOOD-THEMED POST SPARKS OUTRAGE OVER PAST TEXT WISHING HARM TO REPUBLICAN'S KIDS

But Miyares said Jones was not truly held accountable, because instead of jail time, he asked for — and was given — community service. And instead of serving a charity, Miyares claimed that Jones served his own political action committee instead.

Miyares claimed three of the four people charged that day with similar offenses in New Kent County, Jones was the only one not to receive a suspended or active jail sentence.

"If you were to apply to be a line prosecutor … you would not pass a background check," he said.

JAY JONES’ ‘TWO BULLETS’ SCANDAL OVER VIOLENT TEXTS EXPECTED TO DOMINATE VIRGINIA AG DEBATE

Jones later responded by invoking crimes by conservatives during the Capitol riot Jan. 6, 2021.

Themes of the debate were Miyares branding Jones "not a prosecutor but a politician" and Jones repeatedly associating Miyares with Trump and Miyares as more beholden to Washington than Richmond taxpayers.

Miyares later touched on his position as the first child of immigrants to hold Virginia’s top lawman’s job. He told a story about helping his mother learn the Pledge of Allegiance for her citizenship test and his uncle Angel Miyares being subjected to a public mock execution by the Castro regime for having the "wrong" ideas as far as the Communist leaders were concerned.

"Every autocratic regime, the people in charge always think ideas are better than people," he said, tying that thought into Jones’ murder texts and how he envisioned violence against a political opponent simply over political disagreements and eulogies about Johnson’s death.

Jones spoke of his namesake father Jerrauld Jones Sr.’s role in the House of Delegates and as an attorney in Hampton Roads and as his other family members who had participated in the Civil Rights movement.

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Moments before the debate, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., became the rare Democrat to speak publicly about Jones’ text scandal.

Jeffries declined to call for Jones to drop out, telling reporters at the U.S. Capitol that Jones "has appropriately apologized for his remarks, and I know his remarks have been condemned across the board by Democrats in the Commonwealth [of] Virginia and beyond," Jeffries told reporters outside the Capitol. "And that’s the right thing to do."

Harris literally threw 'JOE BIDEN WON' talking points on table after disastrous debate: 'Are you kidding me?'

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 06:00:55 -0400

Kamala Harris, when she was serving as vice president, rejected the Biden campaign's pressure to celebrate the then-president as the winner of his disastrous debate against Donald Trump, saying she didn't want to be fed "bulsh--t," she reported in her new memoir.

"'JOE BIDEN WON"—all caps, highlighted. 'He fought through his cold as he is fighting for the American people,'" a sheet of paper containing favorable talking points after then-President Joe Biden's poor performance on the debate stage, according to Harris' latest memoir, "107 Days."

Biden's poor debate performance against Trump in June 2024 served as the death knell to the campaign that already was coping with mounting public concern that Biden's mental acuity had cratered and he was unable to serve a second term. Despite the abject failure of a debate performance, Biden's campaign wanted Harris to deliver favorable assessments of the debate to the American people, according to her book.

"Are you kidding me?" she said ran through her mind as she read the sheet of paper declaring Biden the winner of the night.

KAMALA HARRIS REVEALS WHAT BIDEN TOLD HER JUST BEFORE CRUCIAL DEBATE WITH TRUMP THAT LEFT HER 'ANGRY'

She threw the paper back on the table before fielding a call from Biden's team outlining she was expected to say more of the same as the talking points when joining media interviews.

"No. Don’t feed me bulls--t. Everyone saw what they saw," Harris continued in the book of what she thought during the call.

The then-vice president said the disastrous debate was littered with Biden missing opportunities to attack Trump, stumbling over his words and losing his train of thought.

KAMALA HARRIS HAD PROFANE MESSAGE FOR GOVERNORS UNEASY ABOUT SUPPORTING BIDEN

"Trump, meanwhile, was using his words like a weapon, but shooting before he aimed, spouting lies, unburdened by the truth," she wrote. "Biden, striving for accuracy, often stopped midsentence to correct himself, which left him sounding hesitant and garbled. I knew the important policy points he was struggling to convey, and I knew he knew them. He is a master of this material, but that was not coming across at all."

The Biden campaign suffered a devastating gut punch when Biden delivered a bizarre line on Medicare.

"And then, at the end of a string of convoluted sentences in which he twice confused millions and billions, Joe lost his train of thought entirely, looked disoriented, and blurted out, ‘We finally beat Medicare,'" Harris wrote in her scathing critique of the debate.

"Trump’s reply: ‘Well, he’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death,’" Harris continued.

FLASHBACK: THE DEBATE NIGHT AGAINST TRUMP THAT THREW BIDEN'S REELECTION CAMPAIGN INTO A FREE FALL

The former vice president described that campaign staffers were tracking reactions to the debate online, with the vast majority describing Biden's performance as "disaster," "train wreck" and "embarrassment," she wrote.

Harris' husband, attorney Doug Emhoff, faced his own outrage over Biden's debate performance when left-wing Hollywood director Rob Reiner "screamed" at him during a watch party that democracy was about to be squandered over Biden's performance.

"Doug, at a watch party with Hollywood donors, was getting an earful. Rob Reiner had screamed at him: 'We’re going to lose our f---ing democracy and it’s your fault!'" Harris wrote.

As Harris prepared to join CNN in a post-debate interview that was all but guaranteed to focus on Biden's disastrous performance, she reflected on a joke about a cheating husband, she wrote.

ONE YEAR LATER: HOW JOE BIDEN'S DISASTROUS DEBATE PERFORMANCE FORCED HIS MEDIA ALLIES TO TURN ON HIM

"I couldn’t help but think of the Richard Pryor joke where his wife catches him in bed with another woman. ‘You gonna believe me or your lyin’ eyes?’ he says," Harris wrote.

Harris said she would not tell voters "that their eyes had lied," and instead pivoted her talking points to "Trump’s numerous lies."

"Listen, people can debate on style points, but ultimately this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance," she told CNN's Anderson Cooper in the post-debate interview. "Donald Trump lied over and over and over again, as he is wont to do. He would not disavow what happened on January 6. He would not give a clear answer on whether he would stand by the election results this November. He went back and forth about where he stands on one of the most critical issues of freedom in America, which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body."

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Biden's office declined comment when approached by 91�� Digital Tuesday morning.

Harris' "107 Days" hit bookshelves Tuesday and recounts the days of her truncated presidential campaign after Biden dropped out of the race July 21, 2024.

Biden's stunning exit, one year later: The dropout heard around the country

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 08:00:54 -0400

Former President Joe Biden suspended his re-election bid one year ago Monday, in an unprecedented move that ended his more than 50-year career in politics and rocked the Democratic Party, with those on the left still reeling from the impact.

On July 21, 2024, days after President Donald Trump accepted the GOP nomination, Biden ended his re-election campaign amid mounting pressure from within his own party.

FLASHBACK: BIDEN ENDS BID FOR SECOND TERM IN WHITE HOUSE AS HE DROPS OUT OF HIS 2024 REMATCH WITH TRUMP

The unprecedented announcement came as an increasing number of Democrat lawmakers had started to publicly call for Biden to step aside, and the party's leadership reportedly was engaged in efforts to convince Biden, then 81 years old, he could not win the November 2024 general election against Trump.

Doubts about Biden’s viability at the top of the Democratic Party's 2024 ticket began seeping out into the mainstream after his halting delivery and awkward answers were placed on full display for a national audience during the June 2024 presidential debate with Trump in Atlanta.

The performance sparked widespread panic among Democrats and almost immediately spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and some party donors for Biden to step aside as the party's 2024 standard-bearer.

As Biden struggled to regain his footing, an increasing number of House Democrats publicly urged the president to end his re-election bid.

Biden huddled with worried Democrats, including governors and congressional leaders, in the wake of the debate debacle and was also engaged in "working the phones," according to campaign officials.

Biden began the week of his withdrawal in a defiant posture, telling congressional Democrats he was committed to campaigning against and beating Trump. Biden also urged lawmakers to stop focusing on the debate and end the calls for his withdrawal — pleas that he said only helped Trump.

Biden followed that up with a call with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and also gained the support of members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

EXCLUSIVE: WHITE HOUSE INVESTIGATING BIDEN USE OF AUTOPEN IN SPRAWLING PROBE OF ‘INCOMPETENT AND SENILE’ FORMER PRESIDENT

However, concerns mounted and intensified. Democratic lawmakers met behind closed doors hoping to come to a consensus and support the president, but some were hesitant.

The Biden campaign met with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill and, for days, the White House, the Biden campaign and the president himself said Biden had no intention of dropping out of the race.

Then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had told reporters that the president was "absolutely not" considering dropping out.

Additionally, Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy Biden campaign manager, emphasized that "the president is in this race to win it. He is the Democratic nominee."

On the day after the presidential debate, Biden acknowledged at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, "I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious."

Upon suspending his campaign, Biden quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his spot at the top of the ticket. She received the party’s presidential nominee weeks later at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Months later, Trump defeated Harris in a stunning, landslide victory, sweeping all swing states and delivering him a win in not only the Electoral College, but the popular vote as well.

The Democratic Party is still grappling with Biden’s withdrawal a year later, looking for a new standard-bearer, while the former president and his team fall under investigation by both the executive and legislative branches.

In May, leaked audio from Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur showed the president struggling with key memories, including when his son Beau died, when he left the vice presidency, why he had classified documents he shouldn't have had and more.

The audio was leaked after more than a year of congressional lawmakers demanding its release amid questions about the former president’s memory lapses and mental acuity.

Meanwhile, the White House Counsel’s Office and the Justice Department are probing Biden’s use of the autopen and whether signatures were printed at his direction or at the discretion of his senior staff.

An autopen is a machine that physically holds a pen and features programming to imitate a person’s signature. Unlike a stamp or a digitized print of a signature, the autopen has the capability to hold various types of pens, from a ballpoint to a permanent marker, according to descriptions of autopen machines available for purchase.

Biden used the autopen to sign a slew of documents while in office. He also used the autopen to sign final pardons, including preemptive pardons for members of his family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and members and staff of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. He only signed one pardon by hand, for his son Hunter, after vowing to the American people for months he would not do so.

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In his final weeks in office, Biden granted clemency and pardoned more than 1,500 individuals, in what the White House described at the time as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president.

Over on Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee is probing a cover-up of Biden’s declining mental health, subpoenaing a number of former Biden officials for testimony and the Senate Subcomittee on Investigations is requesting NARA records relating to Biden's declining mental and physical health.

91��' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Biden's strange use of teleprompter in donor's home infuriated supporters, dashed expectations

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 20:39:02 -0400

Former President Joe Biden's persistent use of a teleprompter during public events, including during a fundraiser with just a couple dozen supporters, left donors complaining for months and dashed their expectations of hearing from the 46th president, a new book claims.

"For most of the campaign, Biden only ever spoke with the assistance of a teleprompter, even for small private audiences," a new book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," reported. "The presence of the machine made for extremely awkward interactions in intimate settings, and irked donors who had paid thousands of dollars for a personal view of the president, not expecting a canned speech they could see on TV."

"He once read from a teleprompter in front of thirty people in the open kitchen of a Palo Alto mansion," the book continued. "Donors complained for months about the president’s reliance on the machine. Aides defended the teleprompter as a tool to keep the famously garrulous president on schedule."

"2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America" was released Tuesday and authored by Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal, Tyler Pager of the New York Times and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post. It details the 2024 presidential campaign cycle, including Biden's cratering health issues.

BIDEN AIDES PUSHED FOR EARLY DEBATE TO SHOW OFF BIDEN’S ‘STRENGTH,’ EXPOSE TRUMP’S ‘WEAKNESS,’ BOOK SAYS

The book detailed that just days after Biden's disastrous June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump that opened the floodgates to typical Democrat supporters turning their backs on Biden ahead of the election, the president attended a campaign event at Virginia Democrat Rep. Dan Beyers' house without a teleprompter. The book claims Biden only spoke for about six minutes.

"At Beyer’s house, the campaign was eager to prove Biden could speak off the cuff. There was no teleprompter to be found. The president blamed his poor debate performance on a heavy travel schedule and said he ‘almost fell asleep onstage.’ He spoke for about six minutes," the book detailed.

The word "teleprompter" appears in the new book a dozen times, mostly referencing the president's reliance on the machine, as well as concern among some staffers that using a teleprompter was crucial to the president avoiding the unexpected as his health deteriorated.

BIDEN STRUGGLED TO FILM 2024 CAMPAIGN VIDEOS AMID DECLINING HEALTH, NEW BOOK CLAIMS: 'THE MAN COULD NOT SPEAK'

"The officials who planned events at the White House tried to avoid any surprises or unpredictable situations. If the president was going to speak, he would go to the podium, deliver remarks from a teleprompter, and leave. There was no room for creativity or spontaneity," the book states in a section on how Biden had fallen during a commencement in 2023 and staff devised plans to prevent another public fall in the future.

"Everyone could see the president was aging. He sometimes failed to recognize former staff at functions. Still, current aides insisted his decline was strictly physical, and even then they acknowledged it only by trying to Bubble Wrap the president and avoid any more catastrophes. Staff limited direct access to the president, keeping meetings with him small," the book continued.

NEW BOOK REVEALS BIDEN'S INNER CIRCLE WORRIED ABOUT HIS AGE YEARS BEFORE BOTCHED DEBATE PERFORMANCE

Biden entered his 2024 reelection cycle already racked by claims and concerns that his mental acuity had slipped and he was not mentally fit to continue serving as president, which was underscored by special counsel Robert Hur's report in February 2024 that rejected criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials, citing he was "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." 91�� has been reporting on Biden's apparent health decline since at least 2020.

Biden brushed off the claims throughout 2024, until his debate against Trump in June of that year, when he was seen tripping over his words, speaking in a far more subdued tenor than during his vice presidency, and losing his train of thought at times. The debate opened the floodgates to criticism among Democrats that Biden should step aside and pass the mantle to a younger generation of Democrats.

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After weeks of the White House and campaign staffers vowing Biden would stay in the race and to "keep the faith," Biden announced in a social media post on a Sunday afternoon in July 2024 that he dropped out of the race. He endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris to run for the Oval Office, giving her just over 100 days to launch her own campaign that failed to rally enough support when up against Trump.

91�� Digital reached out to Biden's office regarding the claims in the new book, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Top moments from the Trump-Biden debate that changed the course of the 2024 election

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:25:50 -0400

Former President Joe Biden's disastrous presidential debate with now-President Donald Trump one year ago Friday changed the course of the 2024 election.

The octogenarian Delawarean appeared on-stage tired and with a raspy voice, while some of his responses were at times unintelligible, leading to Trump landing several wisecracks in response.

While giving a response about wealthy Americans paying sufficient taxes, Biden said there are at least 1,000 billionaires – first muttering "1,000 trillionaires" – in the U.S. and that they purportedly pay only 8.2% in taxes.

"If they just paid 24%; 25%, either one of those numbers, they'd raise $500 million – billion I should say in a 10-year period. We'd be able to wipe out the debt," and "all those things we need to do [with] child care, elder care."

ONE YEAR LATER: HOW JOE BIDEN'S DISASTROUS DEBATE PERFORMANCE FORCED HIS MEDIA ALLIES TO TURN ON HIM

His response went on for several more seconds, transitioning into a sidewinder about making every person eligible for "what I've been able to do with COVID," before mumbling for several seconds and declaring, "We finally beat Medicare."

When moderator Jake Tapper turned to Trump for a response, he said:

"Well, he's right, he did beat Medicare, he beat it to death."

STATE DEMOCRATIC OFFICIALS RALLY BEHIND BIDEN AS A DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR SUGGESTS REPUBLICANS PULL TRUMP

Biden also claimed to have reduced illegal immigration at the southern border by 40% over the course of his term.

"It's better than when [Trump] left office. And I'm going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the total initiative relative to what we can do with more Border Patrol and more asylum officers," Biden said.

"I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either," Trump replied.

OLBERMANN LEADS LEFT-WING MELTDOWN AGAINST CNN, CALLING TO ‘BURN IT DOWN’ AFTER BIDEN'S PERFORMANCE

Trump also sharply criticized Biden for "destroy[ing] our country," and that he came out with a "nothing" border plan to score a few political points.

The current president also labeled Biden "a Palestinian" – a title he also bestowed on Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is Jewish – in relation to how they have responded to the Israel-Gaza conflict, after Biden accused him of disrespecting the military.

Biden said his late son, former Delaware Attorney General Joseph Beau Biden III, contracted glioblastoma from being stationed near burn pits in Iraq. He went on to accuse Trump of the widely-debunked "suckers and losers" line about World War I casualties buried in a French cemetery.

"My son was not a loser, he was not a sucker – you're the sucker, you're the loser," Biden fumed, speaking sternly through gritted teeth.

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"First of all, that was a made-up quote – suckers and losers – they made it up; it was in a third-rate magazine," Trump replied.

The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg cited multiple anonymous sources in publishing the bombshell allegations in September 2020.

91�� Digital's Kiera McDonald and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

DAN GAINOR: Journalism's original spin. 7 ways the Tapper/Thompson Biden book attempts to absolve media

Sat, 17 May 2025 06:00:12 -0400

Journalism is the first draft of history, to paraphrase a famous quote. If that’s true, journalism books are the CYA of history. Such is the case with the new book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios National Political Correspondent Alex Thompson, who try to shift the blame for coverage of President Joe Biden’s health entirely onto the White House and away from the biased news media – like CNN.

The duo is about to release their book titled, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run." The book would be better titled, "Original Spin." Based on early release to various news outlets, it is a whitewash of journalism’s many failures to properly cover Biden’s very public slide into incoherence.

If Helen of Troy was The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships, this book launched 1,000 takes on Twitter/X, some of them so good they should win awards. (Stephen L. Miller, aka @redsteeze, outdid them all.)

JOURNALISM'S 'ORIGINAL SPIN': HOW TAPPER'S BIDEN BOOK ATTEMPTS TO ABSOLVE MEDIA

But it wasn’t just Tapper, it was an entire media enterprise that hid Biden’s decline. Here are my seven favorite moments from then and now:

1. Start with ‘Original Sin’

The Amazon description reads like it’s promoting "All the President’s Men," not a book-long rationalization. "From two of America’s most respected journalists, an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration." And it then includes this quote from the equally culpable folks at Politico: "The book Biden allies fear the most."

Biden allies don’t fear the book. There aren’t many left who admit they supported him. It’s the media who fear it. Because this book reminds Americans the legacy press is untrustworthy either covering the news or admitting their role in covering it up.

2. More on Tapper

We’re not letting Tapper off that easy. Here’s his ego-infused PR quote in a CNN story, "Toni Morrison once said ‘If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it,’" Jake Tapper said in a statement. "That’s what inspired this book: we wanted to know more about what we all just lived through. More than 200 interviews later, Alex and I have a much better idea. And soon you all will too."

AXIOS REPORTER PUSHES BACK ON BIDEN'S DENIAL OF MENTAL DECLINE, SAYING WHITE HOUSE INSIDERS DISAGREE

To hear Tapper and tell it, they are hard-working truth tellers in a world beset by dishonest politicians. This is the same CNN anchor who repeatedly both covered for and covered up Biden’s mental failings. And he wants a get-out-of-jail-free-card for admitting Biden isn’t mentally fit to run a hotdog stand. Or eat at one.

3. The press conference disaster

On February 8, 2024, Biden held a press conference to counter special counsel Robert Hur's claim Biden was, "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." The presser was epic, with the president pretending his memory was "fine." Then he called Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi the "president of Mexico" during a presser where he spoke slowly and seemed to lose his train of thought. (Days before, he claimed he had spoken with a dead French leader.)

The media coverage was laughable. The New York Times ran with, "‘My Memory Is Fine,’ a Defiant Biden Declares After Special Counsel Report." The Post chose, "Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory." Legacy media outlets skipped the embarrassing memory lapse in headlines.

4. Mourning Joe

Tapper wasn’t alone running cover for Biden. There was "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough, who delivered the most-embarrassing quote of the entire 2024 election: "I've said it for years now, he's cogent. But I undersold it when I said he was cogent, he's far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been, intellectually, analytically, because he's been around for fifty-years," Scarborough said. "Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And f--- you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever."

That was March 6, 2024. Biden’s campaign ended slightly more than four months later. There was no medical event. No rapid decline. And this came after the disastrous press conference.

5. Cheap fakes

When journalists didn’t like what people were saying about the president, they pretended it was based on phony videos. CNN’s Brian Stelter ran with the White House’s argument. "The White House used the phrase ‘cheap fakes," adding, "let me explain what that is." Now, we have Tapper saying that Biden didn’t even recognize actor George Clooney.

In June 2024, NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez did a ‘well ackually’ segment that argued Biden hadn’t wandered away from foreign leaders. "In reality, another camera angle showed the president was actually trying to greet skydivers." He also said the right was "falsely claiming the president was meandering." Just like the right falsely claimed a White House staffer in an Easter Bunny outfit pulled the president away from press questions.

6. Let’s credit George Clooney

As part of the book’s PR blitz, Tapper and Thompson co-authored a piece in The New Yorker, titled, "How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump." Four paragraphs in, they quote Democrats who agree with their narrative. "‘We got so screwed by Biden, as a party,’ David Plouffe, who helped run the Harris campaign, told us," they claimed. And one paragraph later, "Plouffe added, ‘He totally f---ed us.’"

The article goes on to credit actor George Clooney for writing an op-ed calling Biden to step down. The actor had attended a Biden fundraiser in June and the article gave an exchange where, "It seemed clear that the President had not recognized Clooney." But Clooney is Tapper’s hero here. Not the legions of conservatives who complained about Biden’s failing health long before. The Clooney name gets mentioned 59 times in the piece. Fifty-nine. That’s five more times than Clooney has appeared in movies, according to IMDB.com.

7. Post-debate spin

Even after Biden’s debate with Donald Trump, two New York Times writers wouldn’t give in. Lydia Polgreen wrote: "No one won this debate, but there is no question who lost: anyone who plans to cast a ballot for president in November." Jamelle Bouie agreed, "Well, we had a raspy and stumbling President Biden and a deranged and incoherent Donald Trump, who spent two hours unleashing a stream of lies. Is there a winner here? Nah."

AP delivered one of the greatest understatements in history: "Debate-watchers in the Biden and Trump camps seem to agree on something: Biden had a bad night."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAN GAINOR

Former Biden campaign co-chair pressed on whether he regrets defending former president's fitness

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 14:39:19 -0400

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., was pressed Tuesday on whether he regretted criticizing fellow Democrats over their reservations about former President Joe Biden following his disastrous 2024 debate performance.

CNN anchor John Berman cited authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes' reporting in their book about the presidential campaign that Coons knew Biden's debate performance was bad, but still chose to accuse his Democratic colleagues of "bed-wetting" as they expressed concerns over the former president.

"Now, there are some people who've written on this, including Jim Geraghty in the National Review, who say, if you felt that way, maybe you shouldn't have criticized Democrats for their reservations about President Biden at the time. Do you wish you had done things differently at this point?" Berman asked Coons.

"Obviously, if I had any idea that President Biden was going to perform as poorly as he did at that debate, I would have been advising him differently and advocating differently. That debate performance was the first time I saw anything like that out of President Biden," Coons responded.

TOP BIDEN ALLY ‘GETTING A LITTLE TIRED OF RELENTLESS FOCUS' ON BIDEN'S AGE, HITS BACK AT QUESTIONS

"He had been and was a strong and capable president, and he still had strong public performances, interviews, and just the next day went to North Carolina and spoke forcefully at a rally, but I was shocked. I was genuinely surprised by that performance that evening and was wrestling with what it meant for our path forward," he told Berman.

Allen and Parnes wrote that Coons received several texts from his colleagues that pointed out the performance by Biden was "terrible," and that he was expected to answer for the president.

An excerpt from the book read: "Now, jet-lagged, he found himself thrust into the unusual position of protecting Biden from Democratic senators. He knew, as Biden’s guy in their chamber, he could give no ground. If he did, it would only feed the frenzy. He shot back texts accusing his colleagues of bed-wetting, telling them to put their big-kid pants on and asking what was wrong with them that they would so easily go faithless on the president."

Coons, according to the book, acknowledged that he saw what his colleagues saw, and knew the president "s--- the bed" in the debate.

'BIDEN EFFECT' HITS THE SENATE: WAVE OF RETIREMENTS CLEARS PATH FOR YOUNGER DEMS

The Democratic senator regularly defended Biden when pressed on concerns about the president's age and fitness throughout the campaign.

In an interview on 91��' "The Story" prior to the debate in early June, Coons dismissed reporting from The Wall Street Journal that cited lawmakers who felt the former president was showing signs of decline.

"I think they got this wrong because they didn't use quotes from those of us who serve with President Biden, who know him, who have had the opportunity up-close-and-personal in meetings in the White House or in events publicly or privately, to give affirmation that he is sharp, he is engaged, and he is commanding," he said.

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After the debate – as Democrats and several media voices, including The New York Times editorial board, called on Biden to drop out of the race – Coons spoke to CNN on July 1 and demanded anyone who believed calling on Biden to drop out was the best way forward needed to "refocus."

Ex-Biden campaign staffer slams former president's team for knowing he was 'not capable,' feels 'lied to'

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:30:21 -0400

Former Biden campaign aide Ashley Allison said Wednesday that she felt "lied to" while discussing revelations from a new book about the 2024 presidential campaign, specifically former Biden White House chief of staff Ron Klain revealing that the former president was exhausted and "out of it" during preparation for the June debate.

"Do you feel lied to?" CNN host Abby Phillip asked Allison, who worked on the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign.

Allison said, "Yes. I think I hadn't been around the president before that debate, and I worked for Joe Biden. And if the people around him knew that he was not capable, it is unacceptable to me that they allowed him to go onto that stage. I deserve better as a voter, not even as a Democrat, as a voter and as an American, I do."

Klain told author Chris Whipple that former President Biden was "fatigued, befuddled, and disengaged" during debate preparation, according to an excerpt from Whipple's new book, as reported by The Guardian. He also reportedly told Whipple that he was "startled" by Biden's exhaustion and said the former president seemed "out of it."

NANCY PELOSI URGED BIDEN NOT TO DEBATE TRUMP IN A PLAY TO HIS EGO, BOOK SAYS

Turning to "The View" co-host Ana Navarro for her reaction to the excerpt, Phillip said, "Ana, I know that Joe Biden is a friend. But in this excerpt, the part about the pool, he went off — this is in the middle of the debate prep — went off to the pool, and he took a nap. And that was before the biggest debate of this campaign. That’s not even the governance of the country. So Joe Biden, maybe he has the best intentions. I'm sure that you believe that. But the right decision, it seems pretty unequivocally, is that he should not have run for reelection."

Navarro, a supporter of Biden, said that she had been texting with Klain, who reportedly told her that his remarks were taken out of context.

She insisted that something happened to the former president in the days leading up to the debate.

"I've known Joe Biden for over 25 years. Certainly, the Joe Biden today is not the Joe Biden of five years ago, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 25 years ago. It‘s not. But also, I will tell you, and I think that comes out also in the book and the excerpt that I read, something clearly happened that day, around those days, that was not the case the day after. I saw Joe Biden, 24 hours after that debate, here in New York. He was a completely different person," Navarro said.

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"I saw Joe Biden when he came to ‘The View’ after he dropped out, and he was a completely different person than what we saw at that debate. What happened around those days, I don't know. And can I tell you something? I don't care, because I want to talk about the future and how we fight Donald Trump and how we get rid of Donald Trump," she said.

Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton referred to it as a cover-up.

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Allison echoed her earlier point, saying, "What we are hearing right now is unacceptable to me, and I am a Democrat."

"That night of the debate was terrifying for many, many, it was scary. It hurt my heart, but it was very clear that that might not have been the first time. And I find that I find that unacceptable. I would find that unacceptable in a Trump administration, in an Obama administration, in a Bush administration and in a Biden administration," she added.

Latest Presidential Debate News | 91����

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DAN GAINOR: Journalism's original spin. 7 ways the Tapper/Thompson Biden book attempts to absolve media

1. Start with ‘Original Sin’

2. More on Tapper

3. The press conference disaster

4. Mourning Joe

5. Cheap fakes

6. Let’s credit George Clooney

7. Post-debate spin

Former Biden campaign co-chair pressed on whether he regrets defending former president's fitness

Ex-Biden campaign staffer slams former president's team for knowing he was 'not capable,' feels 'lied to'

Latest Presidential Debate News | 91��