Alex Thompson Recalls Getting ‘Ostracized’ by Other Reporters for Writing About Biden’s Decline

Axios’s Alex Thompson recalled being “ostracized” by other reporters for writing about former President Joe Biden’s decline while he was still campaigning for a second term in a new interview with The Free Press’s Bari Weiss.

Thompson, the co-author of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, said that intimidation from the Biden White House and “side eye” from peers contributes to a culture of groupthink in the press.

His comments came after Weiss observed that he was “roundly criticized by your colleagues for going-, for being curious about the wrong things,” and asked him “How difficult was it, do you think, for people to go against the herd?”

“I think your diagnosis of sort of what was happening is much more on target than a lot of what sort of, I guess, right-wing or other independent, other  independent, conservative media, which is that they believe that it’s all liberal media, and there’s like much more of an ideological, you know, mission, like united conspiracy. And I do think in some cases, some reporters let their ideological leanings, like affect their reporting,” answered Thompson. “But I do agree that, sort of, I think the groupthink that sets in among Washington, and the self-reinforcing, and the intimidation by the White House, and by feeling like you’re ostracized — not just by potential sources, and potentially losing access, but also by like your peers and colleagues who are like giving you side eye — I do think is like-, I mean, listen, I mean, it made me doubt myself, right? I mean I wasn’t making it up. Like sources were telling me that he was struggling. So I reported it.”

“How did it make-, tell me more about that. How did make you doubt yourself?” asked Weiss.

“Well, because, I mean, if you’re on a limb, you’re like, why is no one following?” replied Thompson before name-checking a few journalists who also reported on Biden’s age. “But yeah, I mean like, I was like, you know, on a limb and like you, of course — I think any journalist, you’re like, you want to-, you’re checking yourself. So, yeah, I mean, sometimes it was like, sometimes it was a bit lonely. But I think it was also just like: I was being told it, I believe my sources.”

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