The media this week have been all agog at the upcoming release of “Origin Sin”, the book about last year’s election and the cover-up of Joe Biden’s mental breakdown. CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson teamed up to deliver what can only be called revisionist history, as they are leaning heavily on the case of the White House duping all of the press and the country. Now we see evidence of Thompson resorting to the very same deception tactics to defend his book that are featured inside the tome. It is astounding.

The two reporters are facing a slew of character accusations, from being incompetent or deceptive, to being oblivious and even being hypocritical. All seemingly are valid charges. One item in this release defies logic – how is it that we have quotes from various highly placed people affirming that Biden was slipping, and at the same time get the talking point that Biden’s inner circle “hid” this condition? There is no way both can be true.

Tapper recently showed his cards as he postured as a stern and bold journalist. In pimping this release with anchor John Berman, he charged the White House with delivering falsehoods when pushing the “cheap fakes” narrative, at the time last year when the videos being shown were in fact accurate. Jake is deflecting heavily here because his own network had also been deceptively pushing that very narrative.

Today, CNN’s Jake Tapper lambasted the Biden White House for falsely labeling videos showing Biden's cognitive issues “cheap fakes.”

Following Jake’s clip are a few examples of Jake’s own network actively perpetuating the “cheap fake” hoax, dismissing concerns about Biden’s… pic.twitter.com/NoiofXLiWK

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 14, 2025

Following Jake’s clip are a few examples of Jake’s own network actively perpetuating the “cheap fake” hoax, dismissing concerns about Biden’s cognitive state and running active cover for the Biden campaign:

- Dana Bash on Inside Politics
- Oliver Darcy on Kaitlan Collins’ show - 
- Brian Stelter on Abby Phillip’s show 

We’re somehow supposed to forget all of this.

And now that same neutered argument has tripped up Tapper’s co-author. In the course of promoting this release, we see Grabien's Tom Elliot putting out a video montage of the many times Tapper had put up defenses on behalf of President Silveralert. Recognizing how damaging this evidence appears, Thompson rushed to Tapper’s defense – but did so in the most disqualifying fashion. Alex declared that Tom Elliot used clipped videos and misleading framing in order to misrepresent Tapper’s words.

Yes, he actually did this – he claimed the video was a “cheap fake”.

Putting the Lara Trump interview aside, Tom Elliott’s video is full of deceptively edited clips. The truth is both Jake and I were covering this. https://t.co/FFQwr9CBbH pic.twitter.com/DOJJh2vEZI

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) May 13, 2025

The obliviousness on display by Thompson here is almost astounding. First, the way he blithely tries to just avoid that damning clip with Lara Trump is amusingly neutered. But to then use the very sad and pathetic excuse that the White House and the press used, for years, is the depth of hypocrisy.

That desperate deflection we saw used for weeks last year serves as the very basis of their book, how the administration and the media basically were saying, “that evidence doesn’t count, because we don't like it.” That was at the center of the cover-up. On top of that, Tapper himself is saying on the air this week that it was a fraudulent excuse. 

However, Alex is perfectly comfortable trotting out that very same defense strategy when it applies to them. This, possibly more so than the other deeply troubling issues with their release, underscores the flawed basis of this entire attempt by them to rewrite history. How can you criticize the deception and call out the efforts when you are shown to not only have participated in the fraud but now use the very same defensive effort to excuse your involvement?

This book is already proving to be an impotent attempt to excuse our flawed journalism industry. Now we are seeing that these two media figures behind the book are attempting to edit history and are only becoming ensnared by the effort.