Former CNN pundit Chris Cillizza says he should have covered more Biden’s decline

A former top CNN journalist made a “confession” and “apology” on Thursday, admitting that he should have “worked harder” in reporting on President Biden’s mental decline.

Chris Cillizza, the former Washington Post political reporter who later joined CNN as editor-in-chief before leaving the network in 2022, posted a video on his YouTube page on Thursday in which he admitted he was not appropriately responding to signs of Biden’s deviation despite Republicans urging him to do so.

“As a reporter, I have a confession to make,” Cillizza said in the video clip on Thursday.

“I should have pushed harder sooner for more information about Joe Biden’s mental and physical well-being and any signs of decline.”

According to Cillizza, Republicans “called me regularly” during his tenure at CNN to question him about why he failed to address obvious signs of the 82-year-old president’s decline.

Cillizza recalled how he “dismissed” her because he saw no “evidence” that Biden was faltering – despite numerous verbal blunders, physical stumbles and instances in which the president appeared to be the one in public speeches had lost his train of thought.

A bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday detailed how Biden’s aides carefully orchestrated his presidency to conceal the extent of his age-related decline.

According to the Journal, meetings already scheduled between Biden and senior national security officials in spring 2021 would either be postponed or could be canceled entirely because the president “has good days and bad days, and today was a bad day.” ”

The lawmakers told the Journal that they had limited contact with the president, who is largely isolated by his fiercely loyal aides.

The former CNN pundit, who read excerpts from the Journal report in his video, said he accepted the White House’s position that Biden was doing well and that he was doing well because of the guilt he felt over the president’s “age-shaming.” , will be deterred from pursuing the matter further.

“The White House and the people around Joe Biden were absolutely convinced that it was offensive to suggest anything – to ask whether he was in a physical state, a mental state or both,” Cillizza said Thursday.

“‘How could you? It’s age-shaming.’ And I think that influenced me in some ways,” he admitted.

Cillizza said: “Although I’ve asked the question from time to time, I honestly haven’t really pushed it.”

“When I left CNN and Biden’s age became a little more clear to me, I think I wrote pretty regularly and talked about it pretty regularly that I wasn’t sure this guy was up to it,” the former pundit added.

“And then after the debate on June 27, obviously everyone, including me, was writing and talking about it.”

The debate, which made it clear to the public that Biden was weakened, led Democratic power brokers, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to push him out of the presidential race.

Biden then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the November 5 election to Donald Trump.

“I probably should have engaged more with the Biden era, because in hindsight it’s clear that people around him knew that he had, at best, some good days and some bad days,” Cillizza acknowledged.

“June 27, the debate, was clearly a bad day. But if the bad day was that bad, as bad as he performed at this stage of the debate, then the fact that he was president without many questions being asked about his physical and mental decline is a little worrisome and troubling. The question: “When did the people around him know, what did they know and why didn’t they share it?” said Cillizza.

Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, criticized Cillizza, noting, “There was no bigger, more obsessive ‘McCain Truther’ about my father’s age when he ran for office in 2008 (when he was 71, mind you) than Chris.” .” ”

“He ignored Biden because he is a hack,” McCain wrote on X.