Tapper & Thompson On The Biden Cover-upThey dug up a ton of depressing details on the denialist Dems. But not the media!
Jake Tapper is the lead DC anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN, whose books include The Outpost, The Hellfire Club, and The Devil May Dance. Alex Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios and a political analyst for CNN. They just published Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. For two clips of our convo — on the deep dysfunction of the Biden family, and the blame Jill deserves for concealing Joe’s decline — head to our YouTube page. Other topics: Alex leaving the Mormon Church after his dad’s ex-communication and a loss of faith; the cult-like loyalty of Biden’s aides; hiding Beau’s cancer; Hunter’s profound addiction; dating Beau’s widow and getting her on crack too; his emotional blackmailing of Joe; his influence peddling; his infamous laptop; Ashley Biden’s rehab and relapse; the Kennedys; the Bidens’ rift with the Obamas; Joe’s bitterness over Barack backing Hillary in 2016; the first signs of cognitive decline; the Covid election and razor-thin victory; his moderate campaign followed by a radical left agenda in office; Ron Klain’s woke influence; Mike Donilon’s greed and propaganda; “Jim Crow 2.0”; Joe preoccupied with foreign policy; inflation and Larry Summers; Jill addicted to the glamor of the White House; their disowning of a granddaughter born out of wedlock; Joe’s hubris and selfishness to run again; his delusions over polling; his disastrous debate; sticking with Kamala and sticking it to the Dems; the pillorying of Robert Hur; the media’s complicity in hiding Joe’s decline; the dissent of George Clooney, Ari Emanuel, and Dean Phillips; and the Bidens paving the way for Trump 2.0. Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Chris Matthews — who just revived “Hardball” on Substack, Robert Merry on President McKinley, Tara Zahra on the revolt against globalization after WWI, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin, Arthur C. Brooks on the science of happiness, Paul Elie on crypto-religion in ‘80s pop culture, and Johann Hari coming back to kibbitz for his fourth appearance on the pod. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com. I joined another pod this week — Josh Szeps’ “Uncomfortable Conversations” — to talk about the history of the marriage movement and today’s transqueer craziness. Here’s a free preview of the first third of the episode: Subscribe to Josh’s substack for the whole thing. Speaking of Strayans, our recent episode with Claire Lehmann just got this comment:
From a fan of last week’s pod on Bill Buckley:
Another writes, “It’s rare to listen to a conversation that is both intellectually stimulating and a true delight.” And another:
A dissent over the episode:
I didn’t feel that way about our chat. We both deeply admire WFB, especially as a decent human. And his influencer as a public intellectual? Remarkable. But not the kind of writer whose prose sings; and not the kind of independence that marked my true icons in the field: Orwell, Camus, Aron. Another listener writes, “This is hardly a ‘dissent’ of any sort, but I hope you’ll read it”:
I’ve been meaning to ask Matt and Sam for a while, and your email promoted me to send a text. They’ll be on at some point, but not in the immediate future. And I’d never call Matt (or any Dish alum) an employee; he was a co-conspirator. Here’s a long-time Buckley fan :
Buckley’s relationship with libertarianism is basically my own. He was speaking my language here in the entire interview. Here’s one more clip from the episode — on Gore Vidal gay-baiting Buckley: One more email on the Buckley pod:
Well: you be the judge. I didn’t want to get into a media fight, and their book was not media reporting. But at the end, I did note my issues with the press corps and their herd-like cowardice and concern for what their peers think of them rather than for what readers deserve to know. On last week’s column on Harvard and Trump, here’s a dissent from a reader who quotes me:
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Tapper & Thompson On The Biden Cover-up
May 30, 2025
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