Jake Tapper Reveals Biden Would Often ‘Mumble Incoherently’ In Key Meetings, Prompting Staff to Hide Him

CNN anchor Jake Tapper dropped some more details from his upcoming book about President Joe Biden’s mental decline on his Wednesday show.

Tapper explained that many of the early concerns surrounding Biden resulted from him not holding regular cabinet meetings. “That was just one of three cabinet meetings President Biden held in 2023,” Tapper said after showing some footage, adding, “And in 2024, the president would hold only one.”

“We spoke with several cabinet secretaries for the book, and this period of time is what one of the secretaries called ‘The Weird Period,’” Tapper said, adding:

Detailed in a brand new excerpt of my upcoming book with Axios’s Alex Thompson. It says, ‘The presidency requires someone who can perform at 2 a.m. During an emergency. Cabinet secretaries in his own administration told us that by 2024, he could not be relied upon for this.’

The book is based on more than 200 interviews, mostly with Democratic insiders, almost all of which occurred after the 2024 election was over. And it provides a striking look at how the circle of people with access to the president grew smaller and smaller in the last two years of his term.

Tapper then played a quick clip of Biden saying, “You talk to my staff, all of you talk to my staff. Sometimes my staff talks a lot.”

“Shrinking so small that, ultimately, most cabinet secretaries were not included, people who Biden lauded for what they could bring to the country,” Tapper added before playing a clip of Biden saying, “It’s a cabinet that’s battle-tested, qualified, experienced, creative, innovative, and forward-looking.”

“Despite the earlier praise, the third cabinet secretary we spoke with told us that starting in 2023, quote, ‘For months we didn’t have access to him. There was clearly a deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary,’” Tapper continued, adding:

That cabinet secretary adding that from October 2023 on, quote, ‘The cabinet was kept at bay with few exceptions.’ Those with national security roles, for example, such as Secretary of State Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin.

And it was not just cabinet members who were kept away from the president. Aides who had once seen Biden regularly say they went months without seeing him. Others told us that in some meetings, Biden would mumble incoherently, something the public only got glimpses of.

Tapper then played a clip of Biden mumbling during a speech, he continued:

The first cabinet secretary we spoke with told us they thought at some point these restrictions were about control. ‘Yes, the president is making the decisions, but if the Inner Circle is shaping them in such a way, is it really a decision?’ They told us, ‘Are they leading him to something?’

The third cabinet secretary told me they shielded him in every meeting. They always wanted to keep him happy. They would say, don’t say that. Don’t tell him that. They always want to shield him from bad news. But at other times it seemed the Inner circle was doing everything they could to hide the extent. To which Biden was diminished.

During one rare meeting during that time, the third cabinet secretary told me they were shocked by how the president was acting. He seemed, quote, ‘disoriented,’ and, quote ‘out of it.’ ‘I don’t think he has dementia,’ said cabinet secretary number two, ‘but the thing is he’s an old man. The president can give you four to six good hours a day. When he got tired, sloppy isn’t the right word, but his guard was down.’ The third cabinet secretary later reminisced, quote, ‘The staff did him wrong. If you were with him every day and you knew this was a problem, why didn’t you go to him and say something?’

As for the second cabinet secretary, ‘If he had asked me, they said, I would have told him do one term and you’re done, to preserve your legacy.’ They would all later learn that they were far from the only ones with these concerns. Biden spokesperson responded to our reporting with a statement saying, in part, quote, we continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job.

In fact, the evidence points to the opposite. He was very effective president, unquote. And to that, I say the book drops on Tuesday, and we will have more on his abilities as president and the questions being raised there.

Watch the clip above via CNN.