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Tapper: “I Didn’t Vote For Biden Or Trump… So That Wasn’t A Bias Of Mine”

June 1, 2025
Tim Hains

CNN’s Jake Tapper denies any political bias in his reporting, telling “Open To Debate” that he did not vote for either Biden or Trump and “can’t stand either party.”

“That’s not to say that I’m denying that there’s a liberal bias in the media—I’m not denying that, 100%. But on health and sensitivity issues, I just don’t think so,” he said.

“I find it odd that Alex and I have had more to say about our roles as reporters in this. Not that we shouldn’t be talking about it,” he said. “I’m happy to own anything I’ve ever done or not done—but this was the Democratic Party that did this.”

“Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, the politburo, Democratic leaders, donors—they saw this, and nobody spoke up. Or very few people spoke up. And the ones who did speak up got hammered,” he said.

“I think there does need to be a reckoning,” Tapper said. “I find it incredibly disingenuous when the answer, I never saw anything, from people in Washington.”

 

JAKE TAPPER: I didn’t vote for Biden or Trump. I can’t stand either party, to be quite honest. So that wasn’t a bias of mine in terms of shaping my reporting.

But what was shaping my reporting was, I think, the fact that there were just a lot of people lying to us. I should have just been more skeptical about the fact that they were lying to us. But there were just so many people on the inside—so many Democratic legislators and so many members of the cabinet and everything—who were just completely gaslighting the country.

…

These issues of health are so sensitive to talk about and to report. And as you say—yes, we saw weird moments of Joe Biden. We also see weird moments—and they’re different, they’re not the same issue, they’re not acuity issues—but we see weird moments of Donald Trump calling Nancy Pelosi “Nikki Haley” and the like.

But it’s impossible to say, as you noted, “This is what’s going on behind closed doors,” if nobody behind those closed doors is talking.

So I really just don’t think that—I mean, there are a million questions I’d love to ask about what’s going on behind the scenes in the Trump White House that we can’t get, because they’re not talking. I get that. That’s their job—it’s not their job to leak to us anymore. And this is a much less leaky Trump White House than the first one.

So I guess I just don’t think so. That’s not to say that I’m denying that there’s a liberal bias in the media—I’m not denying that, 100%. But on health and sensitivity issues, I just don’t think so.

In 2019, Donald Trump went to Walter Reed, and we still don’t know what he went to Walter Reed for. It still hasn’t been reported. And they still haven’t disclosed it. And so I think that that, in itself, answers that question.

…

I sense that reporters are going to ask Democrats about what they knew and when they knew it. And I sense that there are a lot of independent voters and some Democratic voters who want to know exactly what happened.

And look, it’s not just conservatives buying this book. I mean, this book—a lot of Democrats are reading this book. We had an event at the 9:30 Club last night here in D.C.—you know, this is not MAGA Central—and there were a lot of people there, and they want to hear what we learned.

So I think that the Democrats who want to run for president and other higher office—I don’t think that you can just say, “We only want to look forward,” which is what Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are attempting to do.

I think this was a huge scandal. I think that the Democratic Party owns it, and I think that they need to reckon with it.

I find it odd that Alex and I have had more to say about our roles as reporters in this. Not that we shouldn’t be talking about it—I’m happy to own anything I’ve ever done or not done—but this was the Democratic Party that did this.

Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, the politburo, Democratic leaders, donors—they saw this, and nobody spoke up. Or very few people spoke up. And the ones who did speak up got hammered: Dean Phillips, Robert Hur, Annie Linskey, and Siobhan Hughes of The Wall Street Journal, and on and on.

I think there does need to be a reckoning.

I find it incredibly disingenuous when the answer, I never saw anything, from people in Washington. I tend to accept it a little bit more from governors who are hundreds of miles away, but people in Washington, D.C., who had private meetings with Joe Biden? I just don’t buy it. For most of them, I just don’t buy that they never saw anything.