The Megyn Kelly Show - The Media Lied About Biden’s Cognitive Decline - Until They Couldn’t Anymore, with Steve Krakauer | Ep. 830

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

Megyn Kelly is joined by Steve Krakauer, executive producer of The Megyn Kelly Show, to discuss the end of Joe Biden's campaign in the wake of the debate, the language and phrasing used by the media refusing to admit the truth about Biden's physical state, the relationship between "Morning Joe" and Biden, and more.Steve Krakauer’s book “Uncovered”: http://readuncovered.com/Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow 

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east. Hey, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. What a difference a week makes. The media has done a complete 180 in its coverage of President Biden, as they can no longer deny what is clear to any American with eyes and ears. Of course, now that the wheels are coming off the bus, they're all trying to go off with it. But I wasn't on that bus. I never helped advance that bus. I was always obviously aware of his cognitive abilities. Sure. OK. Remember, it was just a couple of weeks ago that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the media called these videos circulating,

showing President Biden's concerning moments of public events, cheap fakes. So what gives? Here to discuss it all, my executive producer of this show, Steve Krakauer, who's also a media analyst and critic. Steve, great to have you. Hey, Megan. Good to talk to you. Can you believe the shitstorm that is now swirling around the president? I mean, what do you make of this? As somebody who watches the media, I've never seen anything like this. Well, at this point, I can believe it. I mean, I think that the floodgates have officially opened.

I would say in the minutes after the debate ended, And we went live as soon as the debate ended. I mean, literally, the debate was actually still going on. And you said that Joe Biden, it's over. The nomination, his run in 2024 is over, whether he knows it or not. And I was actually a little surprised to hear that. I thought, well, but you were obviously completely right on. And it was a little bit surprising in those initial hours that the media really followed suit. We saw from CNN's John King, and then we saw reporting from leak, and then things would open up. Maybe it would be around this time that things would start to kind of galvanize around this message, but it was immediate. And I think it was because it was just so obvious. And I think there's other things at play. I think the corporate press, along with a lot of the elements of the Democratic establishment, realized that Joe Biden could not beat Donald Trump. And that is what led to this.

So at this point, I mean, we're just getting story after story. And that is what led to this. But so so at this point, I mean, we're just getting story after story. And I think that there is a real pressure campaign that's being waged through the media right now to get Joe Biden to at least step down as the nominee and potentially as the president. But at this point, yeah, I think it's it's a foregone conclusion. This is happening very fast. And I think we're going to see it over very soon. It is a pile on at the moment. And you know, it's interesting if you watch the language, as we all do very carefully, you're seeing new language, even not just from the press, but even from the president's advisors.

So I asked the team to put together, this is a butted sot, meaning butted sound on tape of Karine Jean-Pierre and another White House representative, Ian Sams. And listen to like, they're defending the president and what they've seen, but listen to how they phrase it. It's no longer being stated that he's fine as a matter of fact. We've shifted. See if you can hear the shift. I would see this as what it was and what we believe it to be, which is it was a bad night. I have engagement with the president pretty regularly. What I see is a strong, resolute president

who's always willing and able to work on behalf of the American people. We are acknowledging what people are seeing, but we do believe this was a, in this instance, it was a bad night. We believe that this is a president that is able to continue to deliver and build on the unprecedented success that he's been able to do. That's what we believe. We believe and he believes it. When I deal with him, he's sharp. He's asking tough questions. And he's speaking, I think maybe most importantly, speaking passionately about what matters to him. What's the common thread you heard in all those answers?

I think they're scrambling right now. And I think, though, look, these are paid partisans. And this is also, I mean, we've seen this multiple times now over the course of the day, no matter if it's Andrew Bates, who's like one of my least favorite spokespeople, because, I mean, he literally is just lying at all times. They are not going to say that Joe Biden is thinking about leaving, is possibly going to leave,, that Joe Biden is, is thinking about leaving is possibly going to leave is acknowledging that there's real problems until he announces it. I mean, they are going to, and they're not going to say he's fine. Like they're no longer going to say he's a hundred percent fine. And now it's been reduced to my opinion. We believe, we believe

what I see. We do believe that's what we believe when I deal with him. That's what Sam's was saying when I, when, what I've seen, because all of that, I mean, I, I actually think there's some evidence in all of that couching. They're worried about congressional hearings. They could be worried about potential. I don't like investigations, not charges. There's no criminality here, as far as I can tell, but they're putting the distance between them and the lies. Maybe their next job, you know, at this point, I mean, updating their LinkedIn and saying, I'm not going to go out on TV and fully lied. I've got to, I've got to start to worry about what comes next because so many of these people that are the closest advisors to Joe Biden,

what happens to them? I mean, maybe they're part of the next Kamala Harris run. Maybe not. I mean, at this point it's kind of, you know, rats jumping off the sinking ship here. Yeah, they are jumping off. They are rats and they, it's too late to save not. I mean, at this point, it's kind of, you know, rats jumping off the sinking ship here. Yeah, they are jumping off. They are rats and it's too late to save themselves. I hate to tell them, but couching it now in terms of your opinion is a day late and a dollar short. OK, so there's I would say off the top of my head, the two worst offenders when it comes to this 180 in the press coverage, you know, like nothing to see here, move on. And now, oh, it's deeply alarming and he must step down are Morning Joe and the New York Times. Do you agree? Yes. Yes. And I think there's there's a distinction between those two. And I will say the New York Times distinction is most interesting to me because they are they were essentially the rest of the pack. I mean, I think that they were with the rest of the media

up until Thursday night. And so they were undistinguishable from the rest. And now they have to, some level of credit, distinguish themselves from that Friday morning, the daily podcast. And for people who are just sort of general consumers of news, when that daily hit, that daily is the biggest podcast in America by a wide margin.

It kind of sets the agenda for the left side of the country. That was a brutal episode for Joe Biden. That was, I believe, what led to some of these floodgates opening even beyond the New York Times. So I think the New York Times distinguishes themselves now as this real 180 because they were just as bad as everyone else before. Now they're leading the charge to get him out. And how do you see Morning Joe's culpability here? Well, Morning Joe just feels just so gross. I mean, from Joe Scarborough to Mika Brzezinski, we know that this is the sycophants of the media when it comes to the Biden administration.

They are talking to this audience of one. And they have been during this entire presidency. We know that Joe Biden loves Morning Joe. And by extension, I would say Morning Joe Scarborough loves Joe Biden. I've said it for years now. He's cogent. But I undersold him when I said he was cogent. He's far's cogent. But I undersold him when I said he was cogent. He's far beyond cogent.

In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been. Start your tape right now, because I'm about to tell you the truth. And F you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I've known him for years. The Brzezinski's have known him for 50 years. If it weren't the truth, I wouldn't say it. And I think it's critical that we ask the same questions about this man. love, respect. Can he run for president in 2024?

In fact, as the New York Times said, he spent much of the night with his mouth agape and his eyes darting back and forth. He couldn't fact-check anything Donald Trump said, and not only that, he missed one layup after another, after another. Last night, he simply was not on the biggest debate stage ever. I'll even use the word tragically. He tragically did not rise to the occasion last night.

And so they had this level of, look, they are one of the worst offenders because they saw him. They knew him behind the scenes. Now, there's been a lot of reporting that even people like Tom Friedman, who, yeah, they've sat down, they've had a drink, not a drink, but they've had a meal with Joe Biden before. But, okay, maybe that was once a year. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, they knew and they tried to cover it, that they were very much explicit and they were complicit in this cover up on the media side. And so now, you know, you've got Mika coming out there after the weekend who just literally was regurgitating the Democratic talking points, the Joe Biden

talking points just just for 15 minutes to start the show. Obviously, Joe Scarborough wasn't there. And he's just almost crying and how he's so sad about it. He's trying a different tactic a little bit. But he was bad in the beginning, and it's just so embarrassing now. I know. It was amazing to hear her be like, oh, cross-country trips and Hunter's conviction. And there was a state dinner. And so he's super tired. And I got real questions about these advisors that would put him out after, you know, meanwhile, he'd been back stateside for 10 days. It's just such an obvious lie. She, I think she literally took their talking points and made a little memo for herself out of it and read it on the air.

But meanwhile, Scarborough was missing in action, weirdly on vacation without his wife that day after going out on the air that previous Friday and saying, you know, I, he didn't say the words I was wrong, but he said he can't do it. He was, he's unable to prosecute the case against Donald Trump. Megan, they have a home studio in their main home during the summer. I mean, this was like Joe Scarborough in the other room, okay, not going out on air to do this. Right, too ashamed. I really do wonder, like, what happened behind the scenes? I'd love to know. So the New York Times, I think it's actually rather amazing the amount of chutzpah that they are showing in now condemning him as old and infirm and incapable, given how they dismissed the videos showing us all of that as

cheap fakes just weeks ago. Now his cognitive problems have been long in the making. You know, you and I, we reminded the audience that back in 2022, we did an episode. It was an early episode for our show doing a deep dive in his cognitive abilities. And we talked behind the scenes about, is this appropriate? You know, we don't want to diagnose somebody who we haven't actually seen. That's not right. But this is a new story. And we put on Dr. Bredesen, who's an expert in brain health. Like we, we took it very seriously back then, but almost nobody was touching it back then. And that was specifically why we did it. You know, this is a little peek behind the curtain here, but you and I have these conversations and say, what is true and what are people not saying? What is the story that's important, that is absolutely, you know, based in truth, but that people are afraid to talk about,

that people are not doing? And Biden's cognitive fitness and his cognitive decline was certainly one of them. And so we said, well, let's take it seriously. We had on people from the left and right, Rich Lowry and Ryan Grimm. We had on Dr. Bredesen, a specialist in brain health. Let's take it seriously. Let's actually do this because it's important. And obviously, we've been seeing this for years. And there has been a lot of reporting in the last few days that the last six to nine months have gotten significantly worse. I think we have seen some evidence of that. But it certainly didn't start Thursday night. I think that's obvious to anyone who's been paying even a little bit of attention to what's going on. Oh, yeah. I mean, the New York Times actually was like, oh, in the past three weeks,

it's gotten really bad. OK, all right. Sure. Well, after we issued our earlier publications defending all those moments. So let's talk about some of those moments because it's really telling. OK, so the team has put together some great, some great, uh, information for us both to digest here. Now the New York times, they talked about it. This is an article from six 21, how misleading videos are trailing Biden as he battles age doubts, misleading. They say, uh, look, he's got many adversaries in this year's election. And then there are the distorted, there is the distorted online version of himself, a product of often misleading videos. And they go on to say, oh, the conservative news outlets, the RNC,

Trump team, they're circulating videos of him that lack important context. They've twisted mundane moments to paint him in an unflattering light. The New York Times review of these videos found that some scenes were cut short and taken out of context. Other clips were cropped in a way that omitted crucial details. Some of the videos of Mr. Biden circulating during this year's campaign are clearly manipulated to make him look old and confused. OK, so like what? New York Times, walk us through it. This is what they said on June 21st about, let's see, oh, D-Day. This is about the D-Day event in France. he walked out and he didn't stay long enough. Macron was left there to say, to greet all the veterans. And the conservatives did point this out and say he screwed it up and Joe Biden had to take him out. So this is what they report on June 21. He was escorted out of event by his wife, Jill Biden, when president Emmanuel Macron of France stayed behind to greet veterans. But then the point the times wants you to know is a longer video showed Mr. Biden greeting veterans before his exit and then walking out with Dr. Joe.

OK, so they're basically saying he greeted the veterans. He just did it before his exit. So calm down. Now, on July 2nd, there was an awkward moment when Mr. McCrone made sure the president got safely down the ramp. OK, that was it was awkward. Why didn't you tell us that before? And then came back up to shake all the veterans hands. Mr. Biden had been expected to stay for the handshakes. Why didn't you tell us that before? You didn't tell us that you tried to dismiss it like it was nothing. He seemed confused at points during the D-Day anniversary ceremony in France on June 6th. None of that was in the original, don't believe the cheap fakes reporting, Steve.

The entire cheap fake narrative, and that is truly what it was. It was this crafted, artificial narrative that was created to try to spin this video and several others, which I know we're going to talk about. And it obviously all blew up on Thursday night, but it wouldn't have if Joe Biden had even a C minus debate. I mean, it literally took a failing grade, a just a brutally medically obvious debate to blow this completely out the window. And look, the New York Times is not alone in how they framed these videos, but they are obviously a very important voice as we've talked about. And why did this happen, right? Why did they do this? Why did they go down this path? And I think it's important to understand that there is a social penalty, this kind of

intellectual blackmail that happens. When I interviewed Olivia Newsy for my book last year, she had talked about how covering the Trump administration, there was no social penalty if you went after them, if you reported things. With the Biden administration, it's the opposite. You have to have at least a little bit of spine to cover things in a way that you know is going to get you blowback from your inner circle, whether it's within friends, whether it's on social media, on X. And so few reporters are willing to do that. So they're just more than happy to, whether it's willful ignorance or whether it's sort of this obvious bias, but whatever the reason, they are more than happy to go along with this narrative that is clearly false for anyone who isn't totally politically blinded by what's happening in front of their eyes.

They're not afraid of their reputation being hurt, their credibility. They already got away with so many of these lies, Russiagate being the best and most recent example. They're like, yeah, I'm fine. I only win by criticizing Trump and defending President Biden. So the second example is the Juneteenth celebration at the White House on June 10th. This is where Biden stood motionless and he stared blankly for a full minute as others sang and danced around him. Here's the soundbite. He looks literally frozen. This dovetails perfectly with the New York Times reporting now that they've seen rigor mortis in him.

That others, or no, it was Carl Bernstein. Carl Bernstein reporting that some have seen him looking rigor mortis. So the Times after that hit, it was Carl Bernstein, Carl Bernstein reporting that some have seen him looking rigamorous. So the Times after that hit and it became a controversy said some of these videos are clearly manipulated to make him look old and confused. Others cut out vital context to portray him in negative light. This is known as a cheap fake. And now that he's had the debate meltdown, July 2nd, they refer back to this event, June 10th. On June 10th, he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the Juneteenth holiday. I'll give you one more. The G7, which happened Thursday, June 13th. At this event, he wandered away from his fellow leaders during a skydiving demonstration. He appeared to say something to

an officer packing a parachute off to the side. And this is where the Georgia, I'm sorry, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Maloney, walked over and touched his arm, trying to pull him back toward the group. Well, many called attention to this video and said, where's he going? What's he doing? He's leaving all the action. Here you can see the Italian prime minister try to subtly redirect him. By the way, the paratrooper that he was going over towards wasn't looking at him, wasn't making eye contact, wasn't seeking his attention. All the attention was on this one paratrooper, and he did seem to get lost and not understand that's where his focus was supposed to

be. So the New York Times then, June 21st, said he wandered off during a meeting with other G7 leaders, an image that the New York Post ran on its front page. And then they say, in defense of him, he was greeting paratroopers. Like they're trying to say, he didn't wander. He was greeting paratroopers. Now, July 2nd. OK, at one point, Mr. Biden appeared to wander off from the group of leaders. But the image suggested he needed guidance from his host, a senior European official who was present, said that there had been a noticeable decline in Mr. Biden's physical state since the previous fall and that the Europeans had been shocked by what they saw. Where was all that back on the June 21st reporting Stephen? It went on from there. They said they were shocked. He appeared out of it, said the

official. It was difficult to engage him in conversation while he was walking. Ms. Maloney and the other leaders were acutely sensitive to his physical condition, discussing it privately amongst themselves. They tried to avoid embarrassing him by showing slowing their own pace while walking with him. When they worried he did not seem poised and cameras were around, they closed ranks around him physically to shield him while he collected himself, said the official. None of that appeared in the June 21st reporting, which just defended him by saying, yo, conservatives, he was greeting a paratrooper. Yeah. So there's two options for what happened here. Either they had all these quotes from these senior European officials and they just held them back, which is obviously just a dereliction of duty as a journalist, or they went and then they got it

kind of re-reported it out. And they said, let's actually find out what he was like behind the scenes in these meetings. Again, a total dereliction of duty. There is no good side here. And that video that we played, we should play that again, because there was an amazing moment. CBS News did a segment on these cheap fakes. And they played this video. And they said, look at this. This is misinformation.

This is out of context video. And then it was brought to their attention that, oh, wait a second. No, this is the right video. This is the one that we, but it's so obviously painful and bad that they, they assume that this was the bad video. No, this was the version that was actually tweeted out by the campaign. And as there as, oh, look, no, no, he's totally fine here. No, no, he's, he's obviously not. It's, it's anyone. And again, I mean, all of this reframing and this kind of narrative bias that we see, it is not journalists suddenly learning on Thursday night that Joe Biden has a major serious problem here. No, what happened is they saw that they can no

longer have Joe Biden at the top of the ticket and beat Donald Trump. There is a larger plan at play. Now, I don't think it was coordinated. I think that that's very clear. This has been a mess. This has just been a debacle in the last seven days, too. No one knows what to do. There's no coordination happening. But what's at the core of what's happening here from the corporate media is that they have clearly made a decision that it's all hands on deck to push Joe Biden out because he cannot beat Donald Trump. That's that's what's really at the base here. We've got to save democracy. This is our way of doing it. Yes. What they while we were, you know, slack jawed watching that debate thinking, oh, my God, it's even worse than we knew.

They were watching it thinking the jig is up. We can no longer, we we've known what everybody's known, but we can, we no longer have plausible deniability. So we have no choice, but to push him, make him walk the plank. That's it. It's done. We cannot win with this guy. That's all they cared about. We can't win with him now because people have seen what we saw. Yes. Yeah. I think that that is in a different time. This presidency of Joe Biden would have been covered in a very different way. And even potentially if Donald Trump, let's say, decided not to run in 2024, potentially the Joe Biden presidency would be covered very differently. in how President Biden was covered free Thursday night and that debacle and the debate stage and what's happened since then. Whether they've decided to just open their notebook and publish the things that they had, that they were afraid to publish, that they were essentially blackmailed from publishing

before, you know, not literal blackmail, but essentially like social blackmail from the Democratic establishment, whatever the reason, that has completely changed now. And it is all open season on covering Joe Biden in an honest way. That's very important. This is not like, let's make up some things and get him out. No, now let's be honest about the real situation that's facing America. Because that is, this is a president. This is not just a political candidate. This is what he's been like for a very long time, certainly before Thursday night. So you and I both know that if the Democrats push him out and replace him with anyone, the media will once again become fawning, absolutely fawning over whomever they choose. But the interesting question is, what if they don't push him out? What if he doesn't go, which I don't think is likely.

I mean, we've talked about that, but let's say he doesn't go. What does the media do then, right, between now and November? Well, a couple of things to point out that have all been things that I found from our show. So I will say, first of all, Chris Steyer, Walt, was great when he came on. We did a segment early on, this was back in February, about what would happen if Joe Biden stepped aside, whether it was now, whether it was in the primary process, whether it was at the convention. And there is a scenario even after the convention for about a three-week period where he could step aside and the DNC picks the nominee. So there are lots of chances for them to do it. They've got a

long runway. Obviously, I think they would like to get this done immediately. It looks like Joe Biden's digging in his heels, but the media will be relentless. They will not just give into this. The polls are not going to change. This is only going to get worse. They have until kind of mid September to get rid of them. So that's the first thing that I would say. The other thing that I think that's important is something that Steve Bannon brought up. This was before he went to jail now this week when he was on our show on Friday. And I think that the media has to understand that they're not going to just get away with

suddenly Kamala Harris is in the chair or suddenly, oh, it's a contested convention. Let's just talk about how great this is. This is just a show of democracy. No, the Republicans are going to make a point that this was done to the American people. This was a lie that was perpetrated by the Democratic establishment and the media to kind of work in coordination. And this is not a solution, whether it's Kamala Harris, whether it's anyone else. This is not a proper solution for this problem that they have created themselves.

So I think that the media is going to try with all their might to get rid of Biden, and they will try for months if that's what it takes. And then they will certainly try to bypass all, you know, kind of the Republican talking points that this is just great for America. This is really just democracy at work here. I think that they're going to try that, but I don't think it's going to work necessarily. That's right. And it'll be up to people like us to remind the American voters that they've been intentionally misled. And by the way, that whoever they nominate, if it's not Joe Biden, will not have been vetted.

This person will not be, will have been vetted the way we properly vet candidates in today's day and age. You know, I mean, look at RFKJ. Even now, some shocking news is breaking about him because they're just now starting to get mildly interested in him. He ate a goat and posed with his carcass. I don't know. Some other stuff with his ex-wife or his wife who committed suicide, courtesy of Maureen, who's been doing a great job. Callahan, who's also on our show last week. But in any event, they have an obligation as members of the media to vet these candidates. And it's very late in the game to be starting up a new with a new name that we

don't know that well. Even if it's like Michelle Obama, do you think we're going to suddenly get stories from the mainstream media, the New York Times, Up the World, the Politicos, the Atlantics about Michelle Obama? What's in her past? We don't really know. She was the first lady for eight years, but you know, she was focused on, uh, having kids, you know, eat healthy. I mean, we, we've never really done that. No, that is not going to be the point of the media over that, the, the, the following stretch here. No, there is, there is in their mind, much bigger issues at play when it comes to stopping Donald Trump. Yeah, no, it's, it's like Jesus coming back and they, them saying, well, his hair is a little long. No, that's not going to happen. They will be treating whoever it is, especially Michelle

Obama, as the savior. That's how the media will view said person. But we have to get past what Joe Biden does first. As of today, he's hanging in there. We'll see whether he has a July 4th patriotic gift for the country. Steve Krakauer. Thank you, my friend. Great to see you. Good seeing you. Watch it. Yeah. To be continued. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear. Thank you.