Tipsheet

With Everyone Calling Out Tapper's Hypocrisy on Biden Book, CNN Host Hired a Crisis PR Firm

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  May 16, 2025 6:55 AM

CNN’s Jake Tapper’s new book about Joe Biden’s mental health decline and the ensuing cover-up has some interesting tidbits, like the plan for Joe to use a wheelchair if he won re-election. The numerous times he couldn’t remember people’s names, like George Clooney and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, are especially damning. 

It all rehashes what we’ve known about the braindead president, which is that he couldn’t hack it, and yet, the media and the Democrats went to extraordinary lengths to cover it all up. The pervasive inability to answer questions about Biden’s health from top Democrats in the wake of this book, which Tapper co-authored with Axios’ Alex Thompson, is a sign that they were all in on the con. 

Tapper also was one of those people who shot down any notion that the former president was mentally cooked. The montages are out there. The receipts are public. It’s shameless; even left-wingers like Glenn Greenwald can’t believe this is a thing. It’s so bad that Tapper hired a public relations crisis firm to help him navigate this launch. It’s the same firm that helped Elizabeth Holmes, Jeffrey Toobin, and Anthony Weiner (via PR Week): 

CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson have hired crisis PR specialist Heller Co. as they make public excerpts from their book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, according to media reports.  

Tapper, who co-authored the book with Thompson, confirmed to outlets that Risa Heller, founder and CEO of Heller Co., was hired to offer advice as the authors plan to roll out the book “as smart as possible,” per reports. It is set for release on May 20. 

Excerpts reveal that aides to then-President Joe Biden considered allowing him to use a wheelchair if he won reelection and that Biden forgot actor George Clooney’s name and did not recognize him during a fundraiser Clooney organized last year. 

Tapper has tried to backtrack, and it hasn’t been successful.  

A PR firm was hired—what a disaster. 

H/T RedState