Journalists Mourn the Wildly Successful ‘Cover-Up’ of Biden’s Advanced Age

Summoning every ounce of sanctimony of which she’s capable, former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson accused the political press of failing in its prime directive: holding the powerful to account. From her Olympian remove, Abramson determined that the press had failed to “poke through White House smoke screens” and pierce the “veil of secrecy surrounding the president,” thereby allowing Joe Biden’s praetorian guard to succeed “in a massive cover-up of the degree of the President’s feebleness and his serious physical decline.”

But we shouldn’t be too hard on the press. After all, “the President’s decline was a super hard story to report,” Abramson insists. Even the Wall Street Journal, which published an exposé on Biden’s deterioration in early June, “did not deliver.” She’s right, insofar as the paper’s reporters were compelled to rely on Republican sources in its June 4 story on Biden’s decline. If that story was unsatisfying, it was only because the White House reportedly “kept close tabs” on the Democrats who shared their experiences with Biden on the record. Ultimately, those Democrats reached out “a second time and once again emphasized Biden’s strengths.” Representative Gregory Meeks even admitted that the White House insisted he should “call back” and clean up the record.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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Summoning every ounce of sanctimony of which she’s capable, former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson accused the political press of failing in its prime directive: holding the powerful to account. From her Olympian remove, Abramson determined that the press had failed to “poke through White House smoke screens” and pierce the “veil of secrecy surrounding the president,” thereby allowing Joe Biden’s praetorian guard to succeed “in a massive cover-up of the degree of the President’s feebleness and his serious physical decline.”

But we shouldn’t be too hard on the press. After all, “the President’s decline was a super hard story to report,” Abramson insists. Even the Wall Street Journal, which published an exposé on Biden’s deterioration in early June, “did not deliver.” She’s right, insofar as the paper’s reporters were compelled to rely on Republican sources in its June 4 story on Biden’s decline. If that story was unsatisfying, it was only because the White House reportedly “kept close tabs” on the Democrats who shared their experiences with Biden on the record. Ultimately, those Democrats reached out “a second time and once again emphasized Biden’s strengths.” Representative Gregory Meeks even admitted that the White House insisted he should “call back” and clean up the record.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.