Hunter Biden publicly criticized CNN host and author Jake Tapper on Wednesday, accusing the veteran journalist of targeting his mother, former First Lady Jill Biden, following a sharply critical review of her newly released memoir.
The dispute erupted after Tapper published an analysis and book review on CNN.com examining Jill Biden’s memoir, View from the East Wing. In the piece, Tapper challenged several of the former first lady’s claims regarding former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness during the final months of his reelection campaign.
Tapper opened his review by highlighting a passage from the memoir in which Jill Biden defended her husband’s ability to serve as president and rejected suggestions that he was experiencing cognitive decline during the summer of 2024.
“If you knew Joe Biden well, you’d know that if he actually got to the point where he wasn’t capable of doing the job, he would step down,” Jill Biden wrote. “Certainly, if he exhibited cognitive impairment, I would not hesitate to say so. His staff would not hesitate to say so. But he was nowhere near that point in the summer of 2024.”
Tapper responded skeptically, arguing that the claim was difficult to accept.
“All of that is very difficult to believe, if not just downright false,” he wrote.
The CNN anchor specifically focused on Jill Biden’s assertion that her husband was “nowhere near” experiencing cognitive impairment during that period. Tapper questioned the timeline presented in the memoir and suggested that the issue deserved greater scrutiny.
“Why the specific assertion that he was ‘nowhere near that point in the summer of 2024’?” Tapper wrote. “How about the fall of 2024? How about 2025? How about today?”
Tapper also pushed back against the memoir’s emphasis on Joe Biden’s character and values. While acknowledging that those qualities were part of Jill Biden’s defense of her husband, Tapper argued that critics had focused on a different question entirely.
“The issue was never about whether he was good, wise, or had the same values,” Tapper wrote. “It was about his ability to run for president, to win the campaign, and to serve as president.”
Hunter Biden did not take kindly to the criticism. In a post on X, he accused Tapper of focusing his attention on attacking Jill Biden rather than engaging fairly with the memoir.
His response quickly added another layer to a debate that has continued long after Joe Biden’s departure from electoral politics.
CNN stood by Tapper’s review when asked about Hunter Biden’s comments. A network spokesperson defended the piece and declined to elaborate beyond stating that the analysis “speaks for itself.”
The controversy also revived discussion surrounding Tapper’s previous reporting on the former president’s health and political standing. Last year, Tapper co-authored Original Sin with Axios reporter Alex Thompson. The book detailed efforts by members of Joe Biden’s staff to shield what the authors described as the former president’s cognitive shortcomings from both the public and, at times, White House personnel.
Questions about Biden’s fitness for office intensified following his June 2024 debate against Donald Trump. During that debate, Biden delivered several uneven moments, including a widely discussed remark in which he declared, “We finally beat Medicare.”
The performance proved politically damaging and marked a turning point in his reelection campaign. Biden withdrew from the race the following month.
Now, with Jill Biden defending her husband’s record in a new memoir and Tapper publicly disputing key portions of that account, the debate over the final chapter of the Biden presidency shows little sign of fading from public view.
[READ MORE: Trump Blasts ‘Unpatriotic’ Lawmakers After House Votes to Restrict His Iran War Powers]
