Jake Tapper Blasts Democrats for Defending Biden’s ‘Stunningly Flawed’ Debate

CNN anchor Jake Tapper began Monday’s episode of The Lead with a monologue that pulled no punches about President Joe Biden’s “stunningly flawed” debate performance, invoking George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four to pillory Democrats’ efforts to “spin” what Americans saw on their television screens last week.

Biden was returning to Washington, D.C. “undoubtedly a weaker candidate that he was at this point last week,” said Tapper, after a weekend “huddled” at Camp David with his family, who are reportedly encouraging him to stay in the race and blaming the president’s “stunningly flawed debate performance on his top aides and advisors.”

Tapper noted some recent reporting about Biden advisers saying he was considering sitting down for a “high-profile interview” to “reassure voters about his fitness for office” and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon holding a call with Democratic Party leaders “telling them, this too shall pass.”

“There is a pattern, a discernible pattern, of Democratic officials seemingly trying to convince you, the public, to not believe what you saw and what you heard with your eyes and with your ears on Thursday night,” said Tapper before playing some of the troubling clips of Biden from the debate, which he moderated along with his colleague Dana Bash .

“Democratic officials have tried to spin this in many ways,” said Tapper, by trying to say it was just a cold or “one off night” like former President Barack Obama’s rough time during his first debate in 2012. “But behind the scenes, make no mistake, most Democratic officials witnessed the same shocking spectacle that you did.”

Concluded Tapper:

The difficulty that the presumptive Democratic nominee, the current President of the United States, had just articulating his basic thoughts during the 90 minutes of the debate — the spinning is all very reminiscent of the George Orwell quote from the book Nineteen Eighty-Four that I invoked five years ago for a different situation and a different president.

It’s relevant again today. Quote, “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

We’re not going to do that today on The Lead . We’re going to talk honestly and frankly about all of this with a number of individuals who see it for what it is. We’re going to talk to some journalists and some Democrats , none of whom wish President Biden ill, all of whom apparently are more willing to speak freely, honestly, and candidly about the candidate than the people running the Biden campaign, the people close to President Biden. And frankly, most Democratic officials across the country.

Watch the clip above via CNN .