The liberal media admit they are wrong when it comes to President Biden’s mental state
Dozens of influential media figures were asked what they did wrong in 2024 for a retrospective report, and several respondents admitted to eating crow because of President Biden’s mental acumen.
“While last year’s list varied, one of the most important news events of 2024, Joe Biden’s failure on the debate stage and subsequent decision to drop out of the presidential race, was clearly at the top of many of our respondents’ minds this year,” Max Tani from Semafor wrote.
During the 2024 presidential race, many media pundits and commentators came to Biden’s defense when speculation about his mental decline arose, including after special counsel Robert Hur’s report that he well-intentioned but forgetfulviral videos of him looking confused and a Wall Street Journal report on his erratic behavior behind the scenes.
After Biden’s poor debate performance against Donald Trump in June, pressure on him to drop out of the race for the White House grew so strong that he dropped out weeks later, despite vowing to stay in the fight.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, DC, U.S., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A few high profile ones media persons told Semafor that their worst cases around 2024 believed Biden still had his fastball.
Medhi Hasan
The former MSNBC host initially mocked Republicans for calling out Biden’s mental decline ahead of his infamous debate.
“2024 was the year I posted my worst tweet ever,” Hasan said.
His post before the debate said: “I think Republicans will regret setting the bar so low for Biden and helping to spread a distorted image of him as a man who is completely out of it, suffering from dementia, out of touch with reality, unable to speaks. A very low bar to overcome tonight.”
“A few hours later, he was promising to ‘defeat Medicare.’ A few weeks later he gave up the race,” Hasan told Semafor, referring to the announcement.
He went on to say, “Like many others, I was completely, completely, completely, embarrassingly wrong about Biden’s lack of mental capacity. (But I’m still right about Trump’s!).”
Team Miller
The MSNBC contributor and former GOP strategist has always been a vocal critic of President-elect Donald Trump. He admitted, however, that he rated Biden as “too generous”.
“I think I’ve judged President Biden too generously for much of his tenure, and he’s revealed that he’s less concerned about protecting our democratic institutions than he is about his legacy…both will be severely tarnished as a result,” Miller told Semaphore.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace and Bulwark writer Tim Miller.
Brian Lehrer
Brian Lehrer, host of “The Brian Lehrer Show,” admitted he was wrong about Biden’s mental decline.
“A lot of people on my show said that Joe Biden wasn’t fit to run for re-election. I mostly dismissed that as age discrimination. Then I watched the debate,” Lehrer said.
Matt Yglesias
Progressive journalist and blogger Matt Yglesias said he was “wrong about one of the big issues of the year.”
“I thought Joe Biden would prove the doubters wrong in the big debate,” Yglesias told Semafor.
BIDEN ‘A LITTLE OLDER AND A LITTLE SLOWER’ IN LAST DAYS OF HIS PRESIDENCY: NEW YORK TIMES REPORT
“I know that since that humiliation, the whole world thinks that the entire media has been involved in a massive cover-up, but the fact is that many of us (and many of his team, it seems) really thought the situation was better than it was.”
He continued: “In many ways it’s more embarrassing to be gullible and be wrong when so many people without sources and inside information could see it clearly, but this is what happened – I was wrong about one of the big questions of the year.”
MANASSAS, VIRGINIA – JANUARY 23: (L-R) First Lady Jill Biden, US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Douglas Emhoff hold hands as they leave the “Reproductive Freedom Campaign Rally” at the University George Mason on January 23, 2024 in Manassas, Virginia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Josh Barro
Barro, author of “Very Serious,” said “the most consequential thing I got wrong was the extent of President Biden’s downfall.”
“I was shocked and horrified by his performance in the June 27 debate, but I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was,” he told Semafor. “I put too much stock in his satisfyingly scripted performances (such as State of the Union) and misinterpreted the president’s avoidance of unscripted settings as a (mis)attempt to keep him on message rather than a sign that he was incapable of engaging with them in a way on which he did so not so long ago.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“In part, I misinterpreted the signs this way because I took Biden’s choice to agree to an early debate as a sign that he and his advisers had confidence that he could perform adequately in one…I’m coming out of 2024 with a lot of contempt for the president and for the people around him — who were essentially involved in elder abuse — and also with a fair amount of shame that I hadn’t seen through their deception sooner.”
