Folks worried about a Biden 'cover-up' need to focus on our frighteningly dangerous reality
20 May
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a law enforcement event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 19, 2025.
I’m truly sorry that Joe Biden has an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
But the Biden news that’s been dominating headlines, exciting columnists, lighting up social media, and grinding up endless podcast hours has been something else: a so-called “cover-up” of the extent of Biden’s declining cognition before he resigned.
(Unless you’re Donald Trump Jr., in which case you suspect that even Biden’s prostate cancer was covered up.)
In their explosive new book out today, “Original Sin,” Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson call Biden’s aide’s refusal to admit how badly Biden’s mental capacities had deteriorated a “cover-up.” The book details Biden’s cognitive lapses and an alleged effort by aides to conceal them from the public ahead of his decision to end his re-election bid.
Many commentators are livid about what the book reveals. “The book makes it very, very clear there are people who knew and said nothing. And that is a crime against this republic,” huffed CNN’s Van Jones on Sunday. “I think the Democrats are going to pay for a long time for being a part of what is now being revealed to be a massive cover-up.”
Oh, please.
Can we get back to reality? If one of our major parties is to rot in political hell for harboring “people who knew and said nothing,” it’s the party that now controls Congress.
Congressional Republicans know Trump has usurped the powers of Congress, is using the Justice Department to prosecute his enemies, is abducting people off the street and sending them to a brutal prison in El Salvador, and is actively dismantling American democracy — and yet they say nothing.
The so-called “Biden cover-up” is as much a distraction from all of this as are Trump’s stream of distractions (calling DEI an “illegal and immoral discrimination program” and jurists “communist radical-left judges,” saying we’ll invade Greenland, annex Canada, remake Gaza into a Mediterranean resort).
If you want a cover-ups, can you possibly find a bigger one than Trump’s entire regime? Every day, it seems, we learn of another effort to cover up facts to fit Trump’s wishes.
It was reported over the weekend that the chief of staff of Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, ordered a senior career analyst to change his finding that no evidence linked Venezuela’s government to the Tren de Aragua gang operating in the United States.
Why the attempted cover-up? Because the presumed link has been Trump’s entire justification for using the wartime Alien Enemies Act to abduct immigrants without due process and send them to the El Salvador prison.
The regime continues to insist that Ábrego García is a gang member because he has “MS13” tattooed on his fingers. In fact, he doesn’t. That’s a cover-up, too. The photo released by the regime showing his hand with the “M,” “S,” “1” and “3” was photoshopped; earlier photos don’t show the tattoo.
Why the hell are we wasting time and energy debating who knew what and when about Biden’s deteriorating condition anyway, when voters really need to hear about the deteriorating condition of democracy and the rule of law under Trump?
Trump has always done better with so-called “low information” voters. But his second-term tactic of “flooding the zone” with all sorts of detritus is causing even average voters to lose track of major stories.
In a recent poll from the New York Times and Siena College, respondents who had not heard about his regime’s mistaken deportation of Ábrego García to a Salvadoran mega-prison — a significant percentage — gave Trump nearly a 10-point higher approval rating on immigration than respondents who had heard.
And what about Trump’s deteriorating cognition, and the failure of anyone in the Trump White House to talk about this?
You don’t have to look hard to find evidence. Time Magazine recently interviewed Trump in the Oval Office, and had this exchange:
Time: “Mr. President, you were showing us the new paintings you have behind us. You put all these new portraits. One of them includes John Adams. John Adams said we’re a government ruled by laws, not by men. Do you agree with that?”
Trump: “John Adams said that? Where was the painting?”
Time: (pointing behind Trump): “It’s right here.”
Or consider this recent exchange between Trump and a reporter on Air Force One:
Reporter: “There was a car bomb in Moscow this morning that killed a Russian general, do you have any reaction to that?”
Trump: “Who killed what?”
Reporter: "Russian general killed by a car bomb."
Trump: “Wow, no, I just heard. You’re just telling me that for the first time. Where did this take place?”
During an April 30 interview with NewsNation, a reporter asked Trump about his war against Harvard University. Here’s his response:
“Well, I say this. We had riots in Harlem, in Harlem, and frankly if you look at what’s gone on – and people from Harlem went up and they protested, Stephen, and they protested very strongly against Harvard. They happened to be on my side.” He continued, “You know I got a very high Black vote. You know that? Very, very high Black vote. It was a very great compliment to me.”
Or consider his bonkers postings, such as this one:
“Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country. Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten!”
Why isn’t Trump’s cognitive decline — and the failure of White House aides to talk about it — a far more significant cover-up story than the alleged failure of Biden’s aides?
Some blame Biden’s aides for giving us another term of Trump. But to believe this you need to make a series of bonkers assumptions — that had they been more open about Biden’s cognitive decline, he would have resigned sooner; that had he resigned sooner, Kamala Harris would have had more time to mount an effective campaign; that if she had had more time, she would have won. Why not blame Harris for an insufficiently compelling campaign?
Why look back to Biden at all when there’s so much that needs to be seen right now — so much that’s so devastatingly, frighteningly dangerous to all of us? When the fate of American democracy is hanging by such a thin thread?
(By the way, Joe, my wishes to you for a speedy recovery.)
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/
From Your Site Articles