“It’s over for Joe Biden.” That was Megyn’s reaction just minutes after the June 2024 debate between Biden and Donald Trump on CNN that revealed just how diminished the sitting president was.
Biden’s showing, which included garbled, halting speech, mental freezes, confused stares, and slack jaw, was deemed “disastrous” by the usually friendly corporate media. And it was his performance – not the substance of the debate – that dominated the headlines and ultimately led him to drop out of the 2024 race.
No one had a better view of the stunning meltdown than Jake Tapper, who moderated the debate alongside his colleague Dana Bash. Tapper revealed behind-the-scenes details of the historic night in his new book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again with Axios’ Alex Thompson, and he opened up about the “disturbing” event on Tuesday’s Megyn Kelly Show.
How It Started
Tapper called his front row seat to the debate “really disturbing,” as Biden’s problems began almost immediately. He came shuffling out onto the stage with his usual stiff and unsteady gait (which Tapper and Thompson have since learned was the result of spinal degeneration, not a poorly healed foot fracture as previously claimed) and a rather confused expression.
It didn’t get any better once he started speaking. Tapper noted that Biden’s voice was already much weaker than previous years, but a head cold added insult to injury. “In 2020, his voice is much deeper and stronger,” he noted. “[That night] it’s thinner; it’s reedier; he obviously is coughing a lot; he was definitely very phlegmy.”
As Tapper recalled, the president’s first answer “was not good,” though not particularly damaging. The next question about the economy, however, proved to be the beginning of the end. “I think it was… the second long answer in that economics block that we did where he just completely lost his train of thought in such a way that he was grasping for words,” he said. “And look, he has those crutches where he starts wandering off and then he says ‘anyway’ because he’s lost his train of thought. That’s something that we’ve seen. But this was something else. This was something more shocking.”
The president’s response ended with the quote that made headlines around the globe. “Then he says, ‘We finally beat Medicare,'” Tapper added. “Presumably, he was trying to say, ‘We finally beat COVID.’ But it was really shocking.”
Passing Notes
While Tapper and Bash could not talk to each other or their producers in the control room during the debate, they still found a way to communicate their horror at what was unfolding. “We had iPads… where you can write on them… and I wrote – because I had no idea who was back there so I tried to keep it clean – ‘Holy smokes,'” he said. “Now, what I was thinking was, Holy f-ck. I mean, it was just shocking.”
His co-moderator had a similar thought. “Dana writes to me on a piece of paper, ‘He just lost the election,'” Tapper recalled. “It was just – I don’t think this is hyperbole at all – the worst debate in the history of presidential debates going back to 1960. I just can’t think of anything even remotely close to it.”
How It Finished
Perhaps what is most stunning is that Biden and even First Lady Jill Biden did not seem to realize how poorly things had gone. “Jill helps him down from the stage… It’s a one-step stage. Maybe [it was] a little distracting because there were lights or whatever, but that looked weird,” Tapper recalled. “But they come over to the table… and they really didn’t seem to have any idea that this had been as bad as it was.”
Tapper said there was a “very awkward” exchange in which Biden apologized for having a cold, made a comment “about how much Trump lies,” and “then said something like, ‘I guess we’ll go see what the commentators have to say.'” With that, Tapper said the Bidens “wandered off.”
“You know how sometimes you think, Did I just see that? [This was,] Did I just witness this 90 minute event?” Tapper continued. “And again… we all watched President Biden age… We all watched these moments that were uncomfortable and obviously representative of a decline going on. But there was something about that debate that was utterly shocking.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Tapper and Thompson by tuning in to episode 1,075 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.