The media faced another reckoning in 2025 as new details surfaced about former President Joe Biden’s apparent mental decline while in office—and what critics describe as an effort by aides and allies to blunt or dismiss public concern. After years of pushback against the idea that Biden was no longer fit for the job, the issue returned to the spotlight following reporting and a new book that drew on Democratic sources.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper and journalist Alex Thompson co-wrote Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, released in May. The book describes an internal effort to manage perceptions of Biden’s condition and includes accounts from high-level Democratic figures. Its release also drew ridicule from some critics who argued that CNN and other major outlets had previously minimized—or even reacted sharply against—claims that Biden was struggling before his widely watched debate against President Donald Trump.
Tapper’s own network became a focal point of that criticism.
Throughout 2024, clips of Biden appearing to freeze, lose his train of thought, or look confused circulated widely online. The White House pushed back hard, arguing that some videos were edited in misleading ways or stripped of context. The label “cheap fakes” gained traction, with then-press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pointing to fact-checkers and mainstream outlets that echoed the framing.
One example frequently cited involved a fundraiser clip featuring Biden alongside Jimmy Kimmel. CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz said at the time that Biden had simply “looked out at the crowd for a few seconds” before walking offstage with President Barack Obama, adding that “Republicans and right-leaning media outlets” used the moment to claim Biden had frozen. On the same broadcast, CNN commentator and former Kamala Harris adviser Jamal Simmons described it as an “obviously selected video,” and told Erin Burnett: “These are cheap fakes, [as] the White House and Biden people are calling them.”
Months later, as Tapper promoted Original Sin, he described the “cheap fake” label as a misleading defense used repeatedly when real footage raised questions about Biden’s condition.
“The Biden White House falsely — when people showed that clip and asked what was going on — said it was a ‘cheap fake,’” Tapper said in May. “They did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out-of-it way, they would call it a ‘cheap fake.’ It was not fake. It was actual video.”
The book recounts multiple moments in which Biden was described as confused, exhausted, or out of step, even as aides publicly insisted he remained fully capable. One incident, later echoed publicly by George Clooney, involved Biden appearing not to recognize the actor during a face-to-face interaction.
Before Tapper’s pivot, CNN had also aired discussions warning against “ageism,” including coverage surrounding special counsel Robert Hur’s report, which portrayed Biden as forgetful and confused during an interview. Separately, then-CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy used his “Reliable Sources” newsletter to criticize claims that Biden was in mental decline, before leaving the network.
Conservatives also targeted Tapper personally, arguing he was trying to reframe the past rather than reckon with it.
They pointed to a 2020 exchange in which Tapper confronted Lara Trump—then an adviser to the Trump campaign—after she suggested Biden was experiencing cognitive decline during a public appearance. Tapper showed a clip from the Democratic National Convention featuring a teenage supporter with a severe stutter who said Biden inspired him, then challenged Lara Trump.
“How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?” Tapper asked.
Lara Trump replied that she had not known Biden had a stutter and insisted what viewers were seeing was “very clearly a cognitive decline.” Tapper cut in quickly.
“It’s so amazing to me — a ‘cognitive decline.’ I think you were mocking his stutter,” Tapper said, adding that she had “absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline.” He ended the interview shortly afterward, closing with a sarcastic line: “Thank you, Lara. I’m sure it’s from a place of concern. We all believe that.”
Tapper has since said he views parts of his past Biden coverage with “humility,” and he has credited conservative media with focusing on concerns that, in his view, were visible. He has also suggested he now scrutinizes Trump’s age more aggressively in part because he believes he fell short on Biden.
Even with Tapper’s public shift, CNN was not alone in leaning on the “cheap fakes” framing.
The Washington Post used the term in a fact check as early as July 2022, after a Republican National Committee social media post highlighted a viral Biden moment during a trip to Israel. The Post described “cheap fakes” as “the practice of misrepresenting events that take place in a video by adding or leaving out context.”
In June 2024, The Post published a lengthy report pushing back on Republican-distributed clips from Biden’s Normandy trip, including footage of Biden pausing awkwardly while bending to sit as others remained standing.
“Such deceptively edited videos, known as ‘cheap fakes,’ have become staples of Republican attacks against the president,” The Post wrote.
NBC News similarly accused Republicans of promoting a “false” narrative by claiming Biden wandered aimlessly at the G7 summit, warning that selective editing can be especially persuasive.
“Experts have warned that while advanced technology like generative artificial intelligence can spread misinformation, so-called cheap fakes that often use only minor or selective editing can be more effective at spreading false narratives,” NBC News wrote.
The New York Times ran a story headlined “How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts,” arguing the viral clips were “edited or lack[ed] context.” CBS News published a report warning about “cheap fakes” and their electoral impact, echoing the White House’s view that Biden was being targeted by a simpler form of “deepfakes.” MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace also condemned “highly misleading and selectively edited videos,” describing the trend as “insidious.”
The Associated Press published its own fact check addressing the fundraiser clip.
“CLAIM: Biden froze onstage during his fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday night and had to be led away by Obama,” AP wrote. “THE FACTS: Biden paused amid cheers and applause as he exited the stage with his predecessor following an interview moderated by late-night host Kimmel.”
