Jon Stewart took aim Monday night at CNN news anchor Jake Tapper for continuing to promote his and Alex Thompson’s new book, “Original Sin,” about President Joe Biden‘s cognitive health decline while in office.
After joking that he was on “pins and needles” waiting to read Tapper’s book, Stewart mocked the news anchor over his repeated plugs for “Original Sin” and the purportedly “bombshell” revelations contained within its pages. “Don’t news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out? Isn’t that the difference between news and a secret?” the “Daily Show” host asked. Referencing the announcement Sunday that Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, Stewart observed, “Now, doing the story seems almost disrespectful.”
“Can CNN thread the needle? How do you pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor’s book to … somberly and respectfully promoting your anchor’s book?” Stewart continued, before playing clips of multiple CNN personalities trying to do just that. “Some observers might think, ‘Do these CNN people work on commission?’ Like, why are they hawking this f—king thing?” Stewart joked.
You can watch the full “Daily Show” segment yourself in the video below.
Stewart remarked that it is “f—king weird” that “the news is selling you a book about news they should have told you was news a year ago for free,” before turning his attention to President Donald Trump, who received bipartisan praise for posting a simple message sending his “warmest and best wishes” to Biden and his family. “Has any president, has any person, ever had a lower bar to clear than, ‘I have to salute the president. I certainly disagree with him on many things, but I have to applaud that — after hearing this devastating news about Joe Biden — that Donald did not take cancer’s side?’” the “Daily Show” comedian said.
Stewart went on to call out multiple members of the right-wing media who have suggested that Biden’s cancer diagnosis was kept secret for an undisclosed period of time. Even Trump said that he was “surprised” the public did not find out about Biden’s latest health struggle “a long time ago,” and incorrectly said that the former president had a “stage 9” cancer diagnosis.
“Maybe it is another cover up. I don’t f—king know. If they came out and said, ‘Yeah, Biden knew about it five years ago,’ I wouldn’t be shocked,” Stewart responded. “I understand the excitement over an insidious Democratic cover-up about Joe Biden’s mental decline. The thing is, though, it was a terrible cover-up … because we all f—king knew!”
“They used to say, ‘It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.’ But it’s starting to feel like politics is all cover-up,” the “Daily Show” host concluded. To support his point, Stewart played a reel of Trump allies going out of their way to praise the president’s selflessness, before announcing to “Daily Show” viewers, “Tapper’s 2031 book it’s going to be lit!”
