ESPN host and sports journalist Stephen A. Smith argued that the media’s lack of coverage of former President Joe Biden‘s cognitive decline has made President Donald Trump look “right” about his criticisms of the Left.
Smith’s assessment came as the release of the book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios‘s Alex Thompson on the Biden cover-up has brought much scrutiny. Among the critics was NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo, who said the book is both an attempt to make readers think “the media was deceived into thinking Biden had no issues” and a cover-up for how most of the media downplayed Biden’s decline “because they wanted Trump to lose more.”
Smith argued that Cuomo’s comments were “absolutely right.”
“Because that hatred for him that led people to compromise their own professional principles just to ensure that he didn’t win the presidency — well, if you were willing to do that, then all of a sudden, does it not buffer his arguments about lawfare being exercised against him?” Smith said, referring to the multiple legal battles Trump faced while running for president. “Does it not buffer his arguments about fake news, fake news, fake news? Does it not buffer the credibility that comes to his arguments that it was a witch hunt?”
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Smith said the media bias against Trump has only fueled the president’s belief “that somebody might have cheated” in the 2020 election, which Trump has repeatedly said he did not lose to Biden. Smith clarified that he did not believe Trump’s election claims but suggested that the president “genuinely” felt cheated.
Due to the “absence of objectivity” in much of the media, Smith argued that the general public has been left “not knowing what to believe or who to believe anymore.”
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Last week, in an interview with journalist Megyn Kelly, Tapper acknowledged that Lara Trump and conservative media were right in being concerned about Biden‘s mental acuity. Smith commended Kelly for doing “a hell of a job” in the interview and said he couldn’t wait to ask Tapper and Thompson about their book. Smith was among those concerned about Biden’s ability to continue serving as president after the June 2024 debate. He questioned, “How did Jake Tapper not see it?”
On Tuesday night, Lara Trump expressed gratitude to Tapper for admitting he was wrong in dismissing Biden’s cognitive decline. However, she added that his acknowledgment felt “a little bit too late.”
