‘One Of The Greatest Cover-Ups’: Leavitt Rips Legacy Media For Burying Biden’s Decline

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it’s “about time” that the legacy media admitted to being part of “one of the greatest cover-ups” due to their reluctance to report on President Joe Biden’s mental acuity.

The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan asked Leavitt for a response to Axios reporter Alex Thompson, who criticized how journalists dealt with the last administration, as Thompson received the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner for his reporting on Biden’s declining cognitive state.

“Can you comment on” @AlexThomp @axios “remarks & whether you agree with that assessment”

White House press sec. Karoline Leavitt: “I do agree with that assessment from Alex Thompson” at WHCA dinner. “Millions of Americans watched our mentally incompetent president struggle …” pic.twitter.com/117g944k7w

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) April 28, 2025

“Alex Thompson said at the White House Correspondents Dinner. And I’m going to read his quote, ‘President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of the party, is capable of deception. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story, and some people trust us less because of it.’ Can you comment on those remarks and whether you agree with that assessment?” Olohan asked.

“I do agree with that assessment from Alex Thompson, who I understand won an award for writing a story months and perhaps years after the American people already knew that story to be true. Millions of Americans watched our mentally incompetent president struggle with his day-to-day duties of this office,” Leavitt replied. “We watched our country be ran into the ground as a result, and nobody in the media wanted to write about that [or] talk about it. There were many, many reporters, I will say, right-leaning reporters who did talk about that, who didn’t get awards, didn’t get coverage.”

She continued: “In fact, they were lambasted for their coverage and I remember being on President Trump’s campaign talking about Joe Biden’s clear mental incompetence and being accused by people in this room of manufacturing deepfake videos, trying to persuade the public into not believing what they saw with their own eyes for many years and I think it’s about time the legacy media finally admits that was one of the greatest cover ups and scandals that ever took place in American history and certainly it did contribute to the decline in the trust that Americans have for the legacy media…which, by the way, is why we’ve made many changes to this briefing room in this White House. It’s long overdue.”

Since President Donald Trump began his second term, the White House has made several changes in the press room, including making space for “new media” journalists and taking control of the seating chart.