Former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was called a liar and more on social media Friday over his claim to have been completely “shocked” and caught off-guard when seeing how President Joe Biden performed at last year’s infamous debate with President Donald Trump.
Speaking on stage with Politico’s Jack Blanchard at the publication’s Security Summit this week, the former top adviser on matters of national security was asked by Blanchard about the cognitive and physical decline, as well as the failures in informing the public about it, which are the subject of a new book from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson.
In a clip that went viral on Friday, Blanchard asked Sullivan point-blank whether he witnessed or knew about any such decline prior to the debate.
“You never saw, you never witnessed this thing that all these aides are talking about to these journalists that sometimes he would just sort of fade away. You never witnessed that,” he said, after Sullivan had expressed his confidence at the time in the president’s decision-making.
“You must have been shocked, then, when you saw him on stage in that debate,” said Blanchard, getting a “yep” from Sullivan.
“What happened in that debate was a shock to me, I think was a shock to everybody,” said the former security adviser.
When the clip was shared on X, there were
Blanchard did ask Sullivan about the account of that meeting from Tapper and Thompson, and Sullivan called its accuracy into question.
“I do not recall that ever happening,” he said, insisting that Biden did and does know his name.