CNN anchor Jake Tapper stated on Tuesday that officials inside the White House deliberately concealed the extent of Joe Biden’s physical and cognitive decline, including reports that he may have needed a wheelchair if he had fallen again.

Tapper made the remarks during a segment on News Central, referencing internal conversations and measures allegedly taken to obscure Biden’s condition from public and political scrutiny.

“The White House physician, Doctor Kevin O’Connor, was telling White House aides that Joe Biden’s deterioration of his spine, the degeneration was so significant that if he fell one more time that he might have to be in a wheelchair and serve in a wheelchair for his second term,” Tapper said.

“But everybody pushed off the notion that he used a wheelchair until after the election.”

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Tapper went on to describe how the administration reportedly orchestrated visual appearances of the president to mask signs of his physical frailty.

“They started putting aides around him as he walked to Marine One, the helicopter that was kind of hide from public view how bad his gait was, how bad his walking was, his shuffling,” Tapper said.

“Also in case he stumbled again to make sure somebody was there.”

According to Tapper, these steps were part of a broader strategy to minimize public awareness of the president’s condition.

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“This is just of a piece of an overall campaign to try to conceal from the American people the extent to which the president was really struggling to do his job.”

Tapper also alleged that the efforts to cover up the president’s condition went beyond the public and media.

“The bottom line is the White House was lying not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own cabinet,” he said.

“They were lying to White House staffers. They were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors about how bad things had gotten.”

The comments from Tapper mark a rare acknowledgment from within a major media outlet of what critics have long suspected regarding Joe Biden’s fitness for office.

Questions about the president’s age and physical condition have surfaced repeatedly, but the administration has consistently downplayed concerns.

The White House has not responded directly to Tapper’s remarks.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were no public statements from the Biden-Harris administration or from Dr. Kevin O’Connor addressing the claims raised on CNN.

Tapper’s statements follow a string of his own reporting where he "smeared and attacked people who brought up Biden's decline, including Democrats."

WATCH:

Jake Tapper wrote a book about the coverup of Biden's decline, as if he played no role in it at all. It's quite amazing.Tapper smeared and attacked people who brought up Biden's decline, including Democrats.pic.twitter.com/JR7IurXkgz

— MAZE (@mazemoore) May 13, 2025

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