It might come as a surprise to some, but with all of the coverage across the media concerning the Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson book “Original Sin,” here is the rub – it still has not been released. The book goes on sale officially on Tuesday, but between released excerpts and journalists fed advanced copies, there are plenty of details leaching out. It has made for so much desperation and scrambling to elide factual revelations.
Many of which involve Tapper and Thompson. The pair have already faced their share of past contradictions, with Thompson even desperately defending his co-author by employing a Joe BIden excuse for himself. And now comes another problem for Jake.
In one portion of their book, the authors cited how a pair of Wall Street Journal reporters – Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes – bravely dared to report that behind the scenes in the White House, there had been concerns over Joe Biden dissolving mentally. Jake brought both ladies on his show this week to discuss their article and some of the fallout they experienced from that report. This is where he delivers a masterclass in gaslighting. The interview can be seen here:
Jake Tapper Rips Democrats for 'Smear Campaign' Against 'Heroic' WSJ Reporters: 'Disgraceful' https://t.co/RCRrUOXv8A
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 14, 2025
RELATED: Jake Tapper Hired a PR Firm to Rehab His Image and Make Him Appear 'Nicer' to Critics
It matters that this report came out in the days before the debate disaster, before news outlets switched to cover Biden more honestly once his condition was no longer deniable. What is telling are the words Tapper uses in this interview. For instance, during his setup for their discussion, he states, “I said it last year — before the election, and I’ll say it again — the work you did was vital.” This was a specifically chosen explanation by Tapper – “before the election” is his way of threading a needle of sorts, as we will reveal in just a bit.
Also crucial to this discussion is how he followed that with this comment: “The smear campaign against you two by the Democrats was disgraceful.” He later details how the White House communications director said their reporting was a hit piece by Rupert Murdoch (publisher of the Wall Street Journals and owner of Fox News), and cited how some Democrat senators were openly critical of the piece, while they had been in attendance at the meeting that was reported on in the article.
So Jake is clearly on the side of these two WSJ journalists…today. But his firm backing and bold language directed at those who had been critical of these reporters is a calculated dodge away from a cold reality he does not want to address: He was part of that critical wave. Just to explain it clearly, look at what he says in this interview with Linskey and Hughes:
The White House was out of line
They were criticized as Murdoch lackeys
Democrats lashed out at the pair
They were accused of poorly sourced partisan contacts
But we need to show his initial approach to all of this. Let us pull up how Tapper reacted to the release of their article last June. On his show “The Lead,” Jake had a segment where he directly addressed their article, with graphics showing snippets of their report, and we clearly see his commentary at the time is a complete contradiction to his stated stance today.
Here was @JakeTapper making snide commentary that the initial @WSJ report on Joe Biden's Condition was from a Murdoch-owned outlet, they only quoted Republicans, and then he did not speak to the reporters, but had Chris Coons spinning for the party.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) May 15, 2025
1/2https://t.co/zLC6G7sGIv
Jake opened his segment not with the article details, but with the pushback from the White House communications director. Yes — the very same source he was castigating this week. Tapper said, “The White House today is VEHEMENTLY pushing back on the new report,” before he gives the full quote from the White House and shows the post where they are denying this article. Next, he makes time to instruct how the Wall Street Journal is part of the Murdochs' News Corp conglomerate. As he then gets to the article itself, Tapper injects this dose of editorializing: “There is some critical nuance here; the article is mostly based on observations from Republicans.”
So we see there was no hailing these reporters as heroes at the time; he was instead delivering all of the shading needed to call their reporting into question. Then Jake gets around to the interview portion on this episode from June 5, 2024 – but it was not with Linskey and Hughes. No, he brought on Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), to completely disavow all of the content in this reporting.
Now let’s go down that list again of all of the stern complaints Tapper gave this week to say how these reporters were unfairly targeted last summer, and let’s see how he participated himself.
Gave opportunity for the full White House denial - CHECK
Mentioned this was from a Murdoch outlet - CHECK
Noted they used Republican sources - CHECK
Allowed a Democrat Senator to attack the report - CHECK
Amazing. This is Tapper desperately doing the very thing he and Thompson have been engaged in the past few months, and especially have undertaken with producing this book – rewriting history. They are looking to clear their own participation in the cover-up, while also giving cover to others who failed to report and participated in the charade.
The more we see from their book, the more it casts a harsh repudiation on the news industry and how it performed last year. And the more it shows that these two journalists were part of the process.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.
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