The Megyn Kelly Show
Truth About the Biden Cover-Up, and Revelations in "Original Sin," with Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson, and Batya Ungar-Sargon | Ep. 1076
Tue, 20 May 2025
Megyn Kelly is joined by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, co-authors of "Original Sin," to discuss their new book, the revelations about Biden's cognitive decline and the cover-up by those around him, the way they each covered the story at the time, Tapper's viral interview with Lara Trump from 2020, whether the media was part of the cover-up, what Tapper was thinking behind-the-scenes at the June Biden debate meltdown, the criticism of the book and reaction to it from the left and right, and more. Then Batya Ungar-Sargon, The Free Press columnist, joins to discuss how top Dems and the entire establishment was involved in the outrageous Biden cover-up, why most of the corporate media was involved as well, and more. Tapper and Thompson- http://www.originalsinbook.com/Ungar-Sargon- https://www.amazon.com/Second-Class-Betrayed-Americas-Working/dp/1641773618 Select Quote: Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS at https://www.SelectQuote.com/MEGYNTax Network USA: Call 1-800-958-1000 or visit https://TNUSA.com/MEGYN to speak with a strategist for FREE todayGrand Canyon University: https://GCU.edu120Life: Go to https://120Life.com and use code MK to save 15%Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow
Chapter 1: What are the revelations about Biden's cognitive decline?
In his new book, Original Sin, co-authored with Axios' Alex Thompson, the pair document the behind-the-scenes panic among Democratic officials over Joe Biden's decline. Tapper claims he was on the case all along, but couldn't report fully until after the election, when more people were finally willing to talk. But it was a story most Americans had already seen with their own eyes.
The best way to get something done, if you hold it near and dear to you, that you like to be able to... Anyway.
Forgetting the names of world leaders.
I want to thank that fellow down under. Thank you very much, pal.
And then the moment that shocked even casual observers. Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie? Asking for Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, who had died in a car crash seven weeks earlier. The president had publicly mourned her death when it happened, even lowering White House flags in her honor. But he remembered none of it. Tapper did occasionally press White House officials.
Watch him, right? Watch him. And he... They are watching him. That's what I'm saying.
That's the 77% who are concerned.
No, no, no. It is hard for us to keep up with this president. The same president who couldn't remember the name of Hamas.
There's been a response from the opposition...
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Chapter 2: How did the media handle Biden's mental fitness?
Obviously, I feel tremendous humility about my coverage that Laura Trump interview, for example, et cetera. She saw some she saw something that I did not see at the time. A hundred percent. And I own that. I did ask Joe Biden to be transparent about his health records in an interview in 2020. I did ask him about the fact that voters thought that he. He was not transparent at all.
He promised you that he would be transparent about his health records, and then he wasn't. And when you sat with him again, including one month after the Jackie Walorski thing, you didn't ask him about it.
You didn't follow up on the fact that he was falling up the stairs, that he was losing his train of thought regularly, that he was slurring, that he was incomprehensible, that he was getting lost on the White House lawn. You sat right across from him, and you asked none of that, notwithstanding the fact that he had promised you he would be fully transparent about his health issues. Right.
That's true. But I did ask him about his age and the fact that the American people had concluded that even though he said whenever anybody brought up the subject of his age, watch me. And I said, yes, they're watching you and they are concerned that you did too old for this job.
So, you know, you know, as well as I do, that there's a way of you can say, hey, there's this poll on your age. Or you could say you just forgot that Jackie Walorski was dead. You you asked where she was moments after watching a videotape. tribute to her. You lowered the flags at the White House after she died. This happened 13 days before you sat with him.
There is a way of pressing a man like that on the actual infirmities to bring it home to him and to the audience, and you didn't do it.
That's correct. I didn't. And like I said, I feel humility about my coverage. I mean, it's not like I was asking him his favorite movie or his favorite color. We were talking about Putin. We were talking about other issues of national importance.
But yeah, I mean, of course, I've said I look back at my coverage with humility and and I wish I did cover the issues of age and acuity, but I wish I had covered them much more. And I wish I mean, of course, in It's May 2025. Do I wish that in that 10, 15 minute interview I had with Biden in October 2022, that this had been the only subject because I had then what I know now.
Well, it wasn't just that though, Jake. It wasn't just that. I mean, you sat with him a couple of times in the course of his presidency and these issues were not pressed. Well, there was at least that time and then there was the time at the beginning. But separate and apart from that, you covered the Biden's presidency. No, no, no. Let me just finish my point.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of the book 'Original Sin'?
And what did she say?
I mean, I don't want to disclose the contents of a private conversation, but I thought the conversation went well. And she has said this publicly, so I feel fine sharing it. She said that she would never mock anybody's stutter. But I mean, after we did the research for this book and I realized how bad his acuity issues were, I called Laura Trump and I said, you were right.
She was totally right. That's the thing, because when I watched that clip, and I'm giving voice to what a lot of people watching the show are feeling, Jake, I feel angry because she was right. And not only did you not allow her to make her comments, but you seemed to try to humiliate her. You had a hostility toward the position, but she was totally right.
And then you lectured her on how she was in no position to diagnose cognitive decline, which you guys do at length, including on page four of your book. You describe at length his cognitive decline, which is all she tried to do with you. But you had such a visceral reaction to her. And my feeling is that's because you didn't want to hear it.
No, I mean, I'm happy to talk about this. I didn't come here thinking that you weren't going to ask me about this. I'm happy to talk to you about it. The first time I saw the coverage of Laura Trump's comments, which were interpreted as her mocking Joe Biden's stutter, was in January 2020. I read it in conservative media. I read it in the Daily Mail.
And that's where I saw that her comments were being interpreted that way. After those comments were publicized, it got a lot of coverage and Sully Sullenberger wrote an op-ed in the New York Times criticizing her about this. So that's the context for that, that I was following up on a story that had been out there months before. This is also in the context of October 2020, a very intense time.
People on the Biden side are saying crazy things about Trump. People on the Trump side are saying crazy things about Biden, including Don Jr. suggesting that Joe Biden is a pedophile. So that is the larger context. But as I said, Her comments have aged well. My comments have aged poorly. I own that.
But I think what is significant is, in addition to me owning that, the reporting that Alex and I have done, which is beyond just, and when I say just, I don't mean to diminish it, but the comments of Joe Biden making gaffes, saying things stupid, tripping, are all important. and all deserved to be aired and all deserve scrutiny.
But as you know, Megan, because even though you look 30 years younger than me, we're roughly the same age, Joe Biden has been saying stupid things for decades, okay?
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Chapter 4: Who was involved in the Biden cover-up?
There's no problem with honesty on this show. Okay. Yeah. Let's watch it. Let's watch it. Yeah. Frank Ford came on with a biography about Joe Biden.
Frank Ford came on to talk about his biography with Joe Biden. And I'm trying to summarize what his conclusions were. So he is saying that Biden was.
Where is the part where you say he's not sharp mentally, Frank? We've seen the following 10 examples in the past year, never mind three years.
where I wasn't, I've already said, I wish I had covered this more aggressively. Frank Foer had come to the show to talk about his book about President Biden. This was in September, 2023. And I interviewed him about his book and that was the end of that. Now, I suppose in retrospect, I say again, I wish I had been more aggressive. I do.
But our reporting suggests, and like I said, we've talked to more than 200 people, Democratic insiders, that the real deterioration of President Biden, and yes, there was a digression or regression, whatever you want to call it, deterioration since 2015.
but it really started to intensify in the summer of 2023 when Hunter Biden's plea deal fell apart and Joe Biden was terrified about what that effect would have on his son.
I accept that. I accept that it got worse in 2023.
And people close to him say that was a real demarcation. And in October 2023, there is the last cabinet meeting for almost a year And cabinet secretaries tell us that that began, that fall 2023 began what they call a weird period where they were kept at bay, where they were kept away from President Biden.
And now we're getting to something which I do want to talk about. I'm about to switch to that. But let me let me just ask you, because when we got to leading up to the debate, which you anchored that June 27th debate, 2024, there was a ton of news leading into that debate in that month. And we look back at your coverage and found that you ignored it.
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Chapter 5: What were the reactions to Biden's debate performance?
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One of the interesting things is always like, what's the dynamic between the anchors on the set when you know big news is being made? So walk us through that moment when he completely fell apart with the, I killed Medicare, and everybody was left with their own agape moment.
I guess presumably your viewers and listeners know the agape reference by now. So that front row seat was really disturbing. And again, as you say, we all watched President Biden age. We all watched his gaffes. 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.
And maybe you and your listeners were not shocked. Maybe you thought that this was gonna happen and this was all- I think it was one of those shocked but not surprised moments for us. So he comes out and he's obviously shuffling as had been going on with him for years because of his degenerative spine. And although, by the way, that was another thing that the White House wasn't being honest about.
They were saying it had to do with his like breaking his ankle or something in December 2020 and not wearing the boot.
And his refusal to wear the like the foot cast. Not true. Not true. It was another lie.
Yeah, not true. So he comes out and he has a cold also. And he sounds so even his voice, obviously, you go back and listen to him and. 2020, his voice is much deeper and stronger. And then, you know, he comes out, it's thinner, it's readier. He obviously is coughing a lot. But there was something about that moment.
My first text to my producing team read phlegm. And I saw that same word in your book referencing what you were thinking.
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Chapter 6: How did Biden's aides manage his public appearances?
And he poured cold water on that story of your book. Care to respond?
Pretty confident about the sourcing and the event as described. And, you know, we just went through as a country years and years of the Biden people lying and denying. And I'm not particularly interested in pretending any of it is credible. We are very sure of our story. It wasn't just in our book. It was thoroughly fact checked in The New Yorker, who did an excerpt of it. And we stand by it.
And I don't really care what Rufus says.
And now, do you care what the ladies of The View say? Because that's kind of in your, not your personally, but it's in the left-wing ecosphere. And they are having a very negative reaction, I'm sorry to tell you, to Original Sin. They don't like your book, guys. And they don't appreciate that it's being published now. Have they read it? No. Have they had you on?
Have they invited you to come to discuss it?
They have. They have not. They have. They have. We have gone to them many number of times and said we would love to come on the show to discuss. They obviously were where President and First Lady Biden went for their prebuttal. of the book, and we thought it would only be fair to have us on.
But The View, and for that matter, Fox News, seems to enjoy using our scoops, talking about everything we learned in the months of investigative journalism and what we're revealing in this book.
But they're declining to have us on to discuss it, which is regrettable because I think this is an important thing for people to come to terms with when it comes to the view or to explore in terms of the depth of what we, Alex and I, have been able to find out in terms of Fox News.
I will say that there is clearly a contingent of people on the left who want to bury their head in the sand on this issue and pretend it didn't happen and pretend that it's not part of the reason why Donald Trump and the Republicans control the White House and the House and the Senate and why Democratic poll numbers are in the toilet.
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Chapter 7: What does the future hold for Biden's presidency?
Thanks, Megan. Appreciate it. Thanks.
See you soon. Up next, Batya Ungar Sargan is here. She's been watching and she'll react to our exchange. Don't go away. Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, believes that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Let it flourish. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University. Private. Christian. Affordable. Our friend Batya Angersargan is here now. She's a free press columnist and author of the book Second Class, How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women. Batya, last week I interviewed your hero, Sean O'Brien of the Teamsters. I thought of you. He was just as awesome as you believe he is.
And today, I don't think these were your heroes, but it was an interesting hour and a half. Your thoughts?
Well, first of all, you were heroic. That interview was a masterclass in how to be both fair, but also vigorous and representing your audience in the pursuit of truth. So Megan, huge kudos. I enjoyed every minute of it. It was just truly so inspiring. And as you always do, a masterclass in real journalism. A few things really stood out to me. The first being that he acknowledged that
that conservative media had gotten this right, that conservatives across the country, Republicans, realized this. In fact, a lot of Democrats realized this. My question that was left unanswered was, okay, so what are you going to do going forward to increase your humility a little bit vis-a-vis conservatives and Republicans who got this right? Why did they get it right?
I think we know the answer to that. Right. Exactly. Right. You know, he's talking about bringing humility to that moment with Laura Trump. But that moment was, as you pointed out, Megan, fueled by contempt for how conservatives and Republicans see the world. And that question, really, he could not answer you, Megan, which is he admits that he should have done a better job at the time. OK, why not?
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