Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Jake Tapper Tells Megyn Kelly Two Words He Sent His Team During Biden’s Debate Meltdown

Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson on "The Megyn Kelly Show" discussing Biden debate [Screenshot/YouTube/"The Megyn Kelly Show"]

CNN’s Jake Tapper told SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly on Tuesday that he wrote “holy smokes” to members of his control room during former President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate, wanting to actually write “holy fuck.”

Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson released a book Tuesday, “Original Sin,” digging into Biden’s time in office as president and his mental fitness throughout his four years in office and while campaigning in 2024. Discussing their thoughts on Biden on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Kelly asked Tapper to recall what he thought during Biden’s debate against President Donald Trump in June 2024, as he had been a moderator.

“We have iPads where you can write on them, and I recommend it if you don’t have one, by the way. It’s fantastic. And I wrote, because I had no idea who was back there, so I tried to keep it clean. I wrote, ‘Holy smokes.’ Now what I was thinking was ‘Holy fuck.’ It was just shocking, but I kept it clean,” Tapper said.

“Dana [Bash] writes to me on a piece of paper, ‘He just lost the election,'” Tapper added. “I don’t think this is hyperbole at all, the worst debate in the history of presidential debates going back to 1960. I just can’t think of anything even remotely close to it.”

Concerns regarding Biden’s mental fitness had been expressed by Republicans prior to him entering office in January 2021. Democrats and White House officials swiftly brushed aside those concerns as well as circulated videos showing Biden stumbling and misspeaking.

“Then you saw him immediately after, you write in the book, and he seemed like [he was] unaware that something extremely problematic had just occurred,” Kelly said.

“Oblivious,” Tapper said. “First of all, Jill helps him down from the stage. It’s a one-step stage. Maybe it was a little distracting because there were weird lights or whatever, but that looked weird too. But they come over to the table. Trump is long gone. He’s probably in the air at that point, and they come over, and they really didn’t seem to have any idea that this had been as bad as it was. It was very awkward.”

WATCH:

With concerns ramping up during Biden’s 2024 campaign, former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre labeled videos of Biden’s mishaps as “cheap fakes.”

As he debated Trump, Biden struggled to finish arguments and, at one point, froze mid-sentence before Tapper quickly bailed him out.

“He said something about, ‘Sorry about — I’m sorry about my cold,'” Tapper said. “He tried to say something about how much Trump lies and then he said something like, ‘I guess we’ll go see what the commentators have to say,’ or something like that. He and Jill wander off, and it was just one of these, you know, sometimes you think like, ‘Did I just see that? Did I just witness this 90-minute event?'”

“I’m 56, I’m now at the age where I love sleep,” Tapper said.  “Sleep is something that when you’re a kid you hate it so much, but when you’re an adult, you can’t get enough of it. And I even thought as this debate started, ‘Why are we starting at 9? This is so late.’ Then when Biden started to fump around. I thought ‘Man starting this at 9 was really a bad idea. Why didn’t they ask for 5?'”

Immediately after the debate, Democrats and media pundits who had once supported Biden began to call for him to withdraw his bid for reelection. Democrat lawmakers publicly asked him to step aside. Donors froze money for Democrats. Biden announced his withdrawal from the race on July 21, 2024.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/”The Megyn Kelly Show”)