In a year-end review on CBS’s venerable Face The Nation program, the network’s chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford made a bold claim: the most “under-covered” story of 2024 was President Joe Biden’s apparent cognitive decline. Crawford asserted that Biden’s confused and halting performance in a June presidential debate against Donald Trump should have triggered much tougher media scrutiny and questions about his fitness to serve a second term.
“We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats,” Crawford argued. “It could have changed the scope of the entire election.”
Concerns Over Biden’s Acuity
The televised debate in Atlanta proved to be a pivotal moment that ultimately led the visibly struggling 82-year-old Biden to withdraw as the Democratic nominee in favor of Kamala Harris. But Crawford suggested warning signs about Biden’s acuity were evident far earlier, if only journalists had been willing to spotlight them.
She expressed astonishment over a recent Washington Post profile which reported that Biden now believes he could have defeated Trump and regrets abandoning his reelection bid. “I think that is either delusional or they’re gaslighting the American people,” Crawford said of Biden’s advisers pushing that narrative.
Restricted Press Access
In the wake of Biden’s withdrawal from the race, some White House reporters began speaking out about how their attempts to raise questions about the president’s mental sharpness had been met with hostility from administration press aides. They described an environment where Biden’s appearances were tightly controlled and scripted to minimize gaffes and rambling.
One journalist who said he had raised the matter years earlier reported being “blackballed” in White House briefings afterwards.
A Wall Street Journal exposé chronicled how Biden’s inner circle worked to restrict access and insulate the president as his “diminished” faculties became harder to mask. The report revealed that campaign pollsters were barred from briefing Biden directly as surveys showed him badly trailing Trump.
Democrats’ Frustration
It wasn’t just the media that struggled to get face time with Biden. Democratic Rep. Adam Smith complained that he was unable to reach the president to convey concerns ahead of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, despite serving as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee at the time.
“The Biden White House was more insulated than most,” Smith said. “I spoke with Barack Obama on a number of occasions when he was president and I wasn’t even chairman of the committee.”
- June 2024: Biden’s halting debate performance raises alarms among Democrats
- July 2024: Amid calls to step aside, an increasingly confused Biden describes the race as a “tossup” despite polls heavily favoring Trump
- August 2024: Harris becomes Democratic nominee as Biden withdraws citing health concerns
The Aftermath
Since his departure from the race, the Biden camp has sought to rewrite the narrative around his failed reelection attempt. But Crawford argued that effort doesn’t square with the reality that was apparent to anyone paying close attention.
The CBS reporter’s comments have revived debate over how the media handles sensitive questions about politicians’ health and mental fitness. Some journalists have engaged in soul-searching over whether they pulled punches and failed to aggressively fact-check the Biden White House’s evasions and obfuscations on the topic.
As the 2028 race begins to take shape, news organizations will undoubtedly face pressure to more directly address any signs of impairment in the septuagenarian and octogenarian candidates vying for the presidency.
