The Chris Cuomo Project - Biden’s Decline Was Known — And IGNORED

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Chris Cuomo examines the media response to President Biden’s cognitive decline and recent cancer diagnosis, arguing that the real scandal isn’t a cover-up—it’s that the truth was plainly visible all along. Citing Biden’s long-known history of brain aneurysms, age-related decline, and now prostate cancer, Cuomo pushes back on the idea that these developments were hidden or suppressed. Instead, Cuomo claims the media deliberately chose to downplay Biden’s condition to help him defeat Trump in 2020 and beyond. He argues that this isn’t a conspiracy—it’s worse: a decision rooted in political preference, not journalistic integrity. Cuomo says what happened wasn’t secrecy, but strategic silence. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are being told, and many of you are believing, that we are living one of the biggest scandals in the history of journalism. And I'm going to take you through what it is and what it isn't and help you understand, just as I had to understand, that this is the biggest head fake in recent history. What am I talking about? The Biden conspiracy. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo project.

Here's what it is, my brothers and sisters. We are being told, and there's a new book written by two journalists who were absolutely against the idea of a new president. And I'm going to talk about that in a moment. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo project. Here's what it is, my brothers and sisters. We are being told, and there's a new book written by two journalists who were absolutely

against the idea of a new president. And I'm going to talk about that in a moment. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo project. Here's what it is, my brothers and sisters. We are being told, and there's a new book written by two journalists who were absolutely part of the same coverup that they say they're exposing.

What are we being told? Well, first, you have to ask yourself, who's telling me this? Always consider the source. It is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten, one of the best lessons I've ever received in journalism. Information that you're getting is often only as good as the source, meaning do they have a reason to know

or not know, but just as importantly, especially when it comes to politics, because you can get good information from a shitty source, right? It can be an addict, or it can be someone who lies a lot, or it could be somebody who's been in jail, it can be, you know, all kinds of things. But that doesn't mean that they don't know what they're telling you in that moment. And you don't want to confuse what works in a court of law where there is a standard of proof that does not exist in the court of public opinion

with what is happening in the court of public opinion. And that's where we are with this Biden stuff. So what are you being told by the MAGA folks, the right wing podcast establishment and some members of the media. What are they telling you? That the biggest cover-up in the history of journalism is Biden's health while he was president. Now, what's the next line of the story? I bet none of you

can tell me. And again, this isn't on you. This is on what we're allowing to pass for dialogue. I'm telling you, I have rarely been more disappointed in something than I am in this because I lived it. I know that this is the depth of nonsense. Here's how. What is the best reckoning of the narrative? So it turns out President Biden was losing it while he was president. He would have good days and bad days and the staff knew it and he could not be relied upon 100% to remember things and to know what was going on and he had to be reminded about a lot of things and they had to shift things around and they were even keeping him from certain media appearances because you know he wasn't always on his game.

Okay, let's take that as true. Okay, now there's a second part to it that's even more absurd, but I wanna deal with that part first. Is that really a surprise to you? Was that not obvious to you from what, because it was obvious to me I was saying Since the man decided to run in 2020

His age and stage are a huge problem for him And I didn't have a eureka moment. It wasn't some inside thing where I was just on it There was absolutely nothing prescient. There was nothing special. You didn't know that Joe Biden was aging right before your eyes and obviously dealing with late stage life issues? Because here's the problem with the conspiracy.

One, it was obvious. Two, wait, cover up of what? Of what? Did he have Alzheimer's? Did they find massive plaque on his brain? Because we already know from his medical history, from his political history, he's had multiple brain aneurysms. Okay? And a little pro tip, they don't make you smarter. multiple brain aneurysms, okay?

And little pro tip, they don't make you smarter. They don't make you younger, okay? An aneurysm does one thing nine times out of 10, okay? It accelerates diminished capacity. Now, where's the next line of the conspiracy of the coverup, my righty brothers and sisters? Well, yeah, they were hiding it. Hiding what? Does he have a disease? Now, that takes us to the second part. Yeah, he had cancer. If you want me to believe that prostate cancer in an 80 plus year old man is one,

something that would keep him from being president, or two, something that is of some kind of massive extraordinary nature. I mean, I can't believe how stupid you must think I am. What's the second line of the story? Well, they were covering up that he, covering up what you saw, him falling on the stairs, him getting things wrong, him not getting years right, him seeming to stumble and kind of go off when he would speak sometimes and other times not so much.

And it just so happens that if he'd had a really long day and things were done at night and we're almost always talking about something that would be happening after very full days. I mean, does nobody have any elderly people in their lives? I mean, I'm living this now in my family many times over. We've lived through it already to the end. This is how it happens. And this is what was happening right before our eyes, which again, you will see clips in here of me.

I won't burden you with having to hear me say these things again and again and again. The producers can go up and down with sound as they like. Multiple times, his age and stage, his age and stage. He is who you know he is. He's an old man with old man problems. By the way, so is Trump. Now, are they equal? Fuck no, they're not equal. Trump is aging way better than Biden is in terms of mental acuity.

No question about it. Yeah, he's a few years younger or less old. Neither is young. I can't believe I even used that word. They're at the end. They're at the last chapter. Trump ain't livin' to be a hundred. Okay?

So God bless him. God bless Biden. God bless everybody. But I mean, they're in the last stage. I knew Donald Trump when he was my age. He is not that guy anymore. Okay? He doesn't sound the same. He doesn't think the same. He repeats things. He gets stuck with things. He doesn't understand nuance, he doesn't understand context, not the way he used to. No, he doesn't. He's not at the height of his powers. But is he Biden? He'll know.

But the idea that it's a massive cover-up and a conspiracy, and now a book comes out by two journalists who must have been part of the cover-up, right? Because when people would, they either avoided it in their reporting, right? They didn't have people come on and attack Biden's acuity all the time. Why? Well, not because it was a cover-up, but because they didn't want Trump to win. That's what was going on. The media wasn't covering Biden's diminished capacity the way I was and referring to it as openly and glibly as I was because they wanted him to win.

That's the answer. This isn't a conspiracy. It's not a cover-up. They ignored it on purpose. Why? Because they cared more that Trump sucks, is a mendacity machine, and had never shown any aptitude to do even the issues that he was on the right side of.

That's the story. Whether it's the guys who wrote the book or the other media who are talking about it now, that's the part that the right has wrong. See, they're making it a cover-up and a conspiracy because that's what sells on their side. And I have to tell you, just as skepticism is one of the lowest forms of intelligence, you know, I don't know. I don't know. That's right, you don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I know. You don't know any better than what you're being told. So you can be suspicious. A conspiracy is a great extension of skepticism for explanations of what you don't know or don't understand. That's the problem with conspiracies is they take a little bit of what is true

and then play with what is not known and often not true. Okay? We've seen shit in the sky that they can identify. There must be little green men in a basement somewhere. That's the conspiracy. And they're hiding it from us. Oh, so the fact that you can't prove that there are little green men in a basement, you fill that space with saying someone does know and won't tell you. That's the beauty of a conspiracy in terms of this sale proposition. That's why they're so enticing. And that's what's happening here. They covered it up from you. And just ask yourself, covered what up? Oh, you know, that Biden was like losing his shit. He was like getting old in office. Oh, you mean like Reagan? You mean like Reagan, who had real mental disease that was hidden and covered for by an entire political party?

And also with some media complicity, less complicity than these days, why? Because the media had different rules and there was more groupthink within parties. They had better institutional control. There was less leaking. and there was more group think within parties, they had better institutional control, there was less leaking, there wasn't the same amount of media

for all these different outlets, not everybody had a platform. But that's what they're telling you this is, and that is not what this is. You didn't know where Reagan was. They wouldn't tell you why he wasn't showing up. They didn't ever explain why he had the moments he had. And then they just removed him. They never really did that with Biden. They never did any of those things. No, not really.

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So here's the warning. This product contains nicotine because it is nicotine. And as we all know, nicotine is an addictive chemical. See it's not a cover-up or conspiracy. It's something that I would argue is worse and I probably should have started it this way. It's one of the few dramas that is actually worse than what you're being told. Because what Trump and the other guys want you to do is what's their agenda?

They don't want you to believe anybody but them. That's their agenda. MAGA's agenda when it comes to power and control is you can trust and believe nothing but Donald Trump and his minions. That's it. Only them. Only Kristi Noem, who does not know what habeas corpus is, even though she's one of the top

law enforcement officers in America. And if you're saying that's not fair, that's an exaggeration, nope. She had no fucking clue what the words mean or its operative effect in the Constitution. That's the truth. Is it embarrassing? Oh yeah. Remember Dan Quayle with potato? I mean, makes him look like Captain Mensa. This is the person, these are the only people you can trust. And what's their best defense? Well, the other side lies too. The other side screws up too. Oh, great.

Then I guess I should just invest all my credibility in you then. All my credibility, because other people suck too. So I might as well go all in on you. It's so ridiculous. It's so absurdist that it only works if you put it into this stupid poison two party system. You're forced to be binary.

You're forced. It's not that Biden and his mental state was conspired about to cover it up. It was obvious. The media, including the guys who wrote the books, they wrote the book pretending that they are not among the people in the media who realized what the truth was and is about former President Joe Biden, then President Joe Biden, and chose to play it down. They made a choice. And I would say that they did that. A fair criticism is the media has

done that with everyone that Trump has run against. Biden, Harris, and Clinton. The media made less of their negatives than they did of Trump's negatives. Why? One of two reasons, sometimes both. One, his negatives matter more, are more egregious, flagrant, dangerous, okay? Okay? And, or they preferred the other side. It's one or both of those. That's what it is. So yes, they have exaggerated it. They have played down negatives of other people to play up Trumps. Why? Again, one could be because we've never seen anybody lie like him. We've never seen anybody as unqualified in terms of look, if you don't look at what's happening right now and understand the difference between being someone who's rich for being famous and selling their name as a brand and him being a businessman who knows how to run businesses, then you're not being intellectually honest. Okay? What you see with the tariffs, then you're not being intellectually honest, okay?

What you see with the tariffs, what you see with the deportations, what you see with foreign policy, he doesn't have the skillset of negotiation and management. He didn't write the art of the deal, okay? It was written by someone else. He just thought they were good ideas. And he wasn't wrong.

And he's not wrong that it's a good idea to think about revitalizing the environment for the majority of workers in this country. It's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea to get rid of dangerous people who are here illegally. It's not a bad idea to end American foreign involvement in military conflicts. These are good ideas, I think. It's my opinion. But he clearly does not have an equal grasp of how to get them done.

So the misgivings about him are not unfounded. It's not just, oh, they hate Trump. That's not what it is. They prefer the other side because they find him to be offensive on one or more levels and they find him to be incompetent. Oh, but everything was so great. First of all, it's not true. Second, even if it were, it's just because he's doing what any other Republican would

have done. The things that have gone well for Trump are just basic Republican dogma. Cut taxes for the rich, cut taxes, period, cut regulation. I mean, that's what they always do. Now, you've got to ask, well, yeah, that's what works. Really? Then why are economic metrics under Democrats every bit as good as under Republicans and then some? Why are more jobs made under Democrats? And I'll even give you a part of an excuse. They put more people into public sector jobs. Yeah, but not that much, because that was another bullshit conspiracy cover-up that you were sold. The federal

government is bloated with workers. The federal government has been almost the same size over the last four decades. It's just not true. So really it's not true that the reason Democrats add jobs, so much 55 million to one or whatever the number is, is because it's so lopsided because they just add them all to the public sector.

It's not true. And neither is the fact that Joe Biden was the benefit of a coverup of his mental or physical condition. His mental and physical condition were completely on display. The media just didn't play it up because they wanted Trump to lose.

And I spoke about it a lot more, not because I wanted Trump to lose. And I spoke about it a lot more not because I wanted Trump to win but because that's the job. And I don't play favorites unless I tell you I am. Friend of show, I love this guy. I love this lady. I think he's a fair broker. I think she's a fair broker. I will say those things on my show. So you know this is where he's coming from. Cuomo likes her. Cuomo likes him. That's why he has him on. Yep, you got it right. And there'll be Republicans and Democrats. Yes, true. I do not believe one of the parties has a monopoly on virtue or vice. I do think that the Republican Party is going through an unusually lean time of integrity.

But the idea that this book is going to sell all over the place so people can fan the flames of a cover-up that didn't happen, the book that should have been written, what Mark Halperin and everybody else should be saying is, the media didn't cover what was obvious about Joe Biden because they cared more about Trump losing. Now look, you can argue that was the right thing to do. Why? Because Biden's diminishing capacity, Why? Because Biden's diminishing capacity, a little bit of Biden is better than a lot of healthy Trump. A little bit of healthy Biden is better than a lot of healthy Trump. That's why. And even at 50%, Joe Biden was thinking about things the right way, and the people around him had a better course than Trump and his guys. So he was still the better horse to push. You can make that argument.

Now if you want to make an argument that you shouldn't have a horse, well, you know, again, consider the source. The people who are telling you that all have a horse. All have a horse. All have a horse, and no worries. Every MAGA pod person is invested in that side and only tell you what's good for that side and twist if not outright lie or misrepresent what is true about the other side.

So the idea that you can't trust the media anymore is no more true to me than it ever was. Okay? And again, I'll tell you what was a much, much, much, much bigger media cover-up. Okay? We stopped covering the story that the war in Iraq was in the wrong country, in the war on terror. We stopped. When the Bush administration came down on the media about the yellow cake stuff and convinced the American people to a large degree that we were compromising the men and women on the ground in Iraq

by covering that story, that we were hurting operational security, it worked and you stopped watching the news and we stopped covering it. You want another one that's shaping up right now? Another conspiracy that's way bigger than the Biden one because there was none? You know exactly what was wrong with him? There is no diagnosis. Oh no, it's the cancer.

80% of guys over 80 are going to get a prostate cancer diagnosis. I'm living it right now with my father-in-law who is a beautiful guy and a strong guy, and he had prostate cancer and they trade and he did the treatments and he lost his hair and his nails went filled with blood. And he got better and he didn't want to keep going for updates because he doesn't want to go to the doctor the whole generation it's not like us like I have nine specialists for me because I'm so precious he's the opposite that's why he's the greatest generation and I'm the latest and then we get another diagnosis and guess what the cancers all over his midsection. And he doesn't want those treatments. And you know how long ago that was?

Two years. So the idea that Biden had this when he was in office, so what? What if he did? I don't know any reason to believe that. Oh, but all these doctors say, there's no way it could have gotten this bad this fast. Maybe he wasn't getting it checked.

Maybe he didn't want that test. Maybe he didn't want that test. Maybe he didn't. He knew. Maybe they missed it. Who cares? Let's say he did have it then. Oh, yeah. So that was a cover up because he couldn't be president with prostate cancer. Seriously. Do you realize how stupid that sounds? It's not brain cancer.

It's not pancreatic cancer. It's not something that was going to kill him any moment. Well, I just said it's terminal because he's fucking 100 years old. That's why. And he's not going to get the treatment. But I'm telling you, I've lived it in my family. The guy's lasted years.

This is bullshit. And the president saying it to you is just proof that Trump is just playing to advantage and playing you for a sucker. Because he doesn't wanna talk about how Putin just owned him again and walked out of a meeting saying when he says they're ready to start negotiations and now they're both bombing

each other even more than before Trump's meeting. And now look, I don't put that on Trump. It's not easy to stop two people from fighting. He's the one who said he could do it, day one. He's the one who said he could get peace in the Middle East, day one. Right? I mean, at some point, doesn't he have to own his mouth? Talk about cover-ups.

The whole righty media doesn't cover anything that Trump says that's bullshit. That's the same exact thing that happened with Biden. The media, who didn't want Trump to win, played down what was obvious about Biden. The media, who didn't want Trump to win, played down what was obvious about Biden. And I would argue they talked a lot more about Biden's age and stage than the media on the right talk about Trump as a mendacity machine and being incompetent on things and making straight up

bad, reckless calls. So what are we talking about here? Because the mainstream media loves to hate itself in a way that the right never would. So these two guys to get paid, write a book, talking about what they were part of, pretending that it's a coverup when it wasn't, it was a choice for them to not care about it the way they did, that Trump should lose?

That's the truth. That's the story. And how do I know that I'm right and this other narrative isn't? Where's the diagnosis? Where is what was covered up? Where? That he had really bad Alzheimer's and didn't know his name three days a week? Where is that? Where is it? It's what you saw it is. And that's what it became the night of that debate. They could not run away from it anymore. They could not hide it anymore. They could not pretend it didn't matter the same way anymore. And what did they do? They did what the media does. So you guys think that they're like lefty, lefty. They're not. Is there a lean? Is there an inclination? Yes, especially when the alternative

is Trump because he's so obnoxious. They threw Biden out on his ass and they did it so fast and they were momentum so powerful that Biden wound up getting the last laugh, which is somewhat ironic for a guy who supposedly can't think straight. What was the last move in that game? Biden's saying, fine, I'm out, but it's got to be Harris. Why? I have no clue. He didn't even want Harris as his VP. That's what I heard, which is more than enough these days, right? Biden, the guy who's brain dead, got the last move. What does that tell you? So the media, once they realized they couldn't cover or couldn't mitigate, if you want to say cover up, fine. Fine. I just don't believe it. It wasn't

that they covered it up. It was obvious to you. But when the debate came, they couldn't play it down anymore. So they threw his ass out. They motivated that move. That's the truth of this situation. There's not the biggest cover-up in journalism history, it's bullshit. It's just an example of media making choices of preference. That if Donald Trump had the mental acuity issues that Joe Biden does, it would be all they would have talked about. That's true. That's not a cover-up. It's an emphasis. And it's not semantics. It's an operative distinction. And I'm telling you because I lived it and I tracked this kind of shit because I've become so frustrated by it. Like we never talk about the pandemic anymore.

We have allowed our reckoning of what COVID was to basically was just a bad cold and a lot of bad decisions by government that will never let happen again. Really? Go back and look at the trailers full. I'm watching this new TV show, The Pit, and it reminded me of how bad COVID was in the hospitals and how many dead people there were. That's why I got a case so early, by the way, for those of you who believe I had COVID,

let alone four or five times by now. I went into Brooklyn to check out the hospitals because I couldn't believe the reports we were getting. And my brother was governor at the time and he was talking about it. And I wanted to make sure that we weren't, you know, grossly misunderstanding the situation. And there were bodies and trailers and there were bodies everywhere. sure that we weren't, you know, grossly misunderstanding the situation.

And there were bodies in trailers and there were bodies everywhere. People were dying all over the place. It was just a bad cold. It was just a bad flu. The fuck are you talking about? Man, when Trump came with Operation Warp Speed, it was a fucking godsend for you guys. And you loved it. Beautiful vaccine. Everyone's going to get it. And you loved it. And then when the politics of it switched to find a way to burden Biden and burden the Democrats, that's when you went bad and harnessed this anti-vaxxer fringe mentality and made it a frontline focus of your party.

That's what happened in this country. And this is what it is again, just revisionist history to support a gotcha in the moment. I'm not saying it's not true that Biden has diminished capacity. I'm saying it's not, it wasn't a secret. I'm saying the opposite. You're just figuring it out now. It wasn't a cover up. It was a choice to downplay what happened with Biden because they didn't want Trump to win. That's the truth. It's the truth about the guys who wrote the book, because they did it in real time. And there's clips of it all over the place. And it's true now.

And Trump telling you that it's a cover-up is just another brick in the wall of trust nothing and no one, only me. And that's just as toxic, just as dangerous, just as irresponsible as anything that was done or not done in the name of preference, not cover-up, not conspiracy. No. That's the truth. And you show me the facts that make it otherwise, and I'll be ready, and I'll be here for it. Thank you for subscribing and following. Thank you for being part of the Chris Cuomo Project. If you like this but you don't like the ads, join the Substack.

If you subscribe, your comments and exchanges will come in the lives I'll be doing every week on Substack with people and you'll only get your questions answered if you are a subscriber and I'll see you on News Nation. 8p and 11p every weekday night. You can get it on a cable system near you or through the app. News Nation, let's get after it.