Dems Must Not Let Media Make 2026/28 About Biden This is a trap for Democrats, because American voters simply don't care. Ron Filipkowski May 16 CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson have a much-hyped book to sell and a Pulitzer to win. Their friends across legacy media are willing and eager accomplices - because they have current and future books to sell too and it is a very incestuous and cynical business. The narcissistic, self-absorbed, and self-important DC chattering class think that Americans care in 2025 whether Joe Biden was fit to run for president in 2024. The only group of people who care about doing a deep dive into that subject right now is them, but they are determined to use their platforms to do their best to make others care. The premise of the book is that Biden’s cognitive abilities steeply declined throughout 2023-24 to the extent that the was unfit to run again, and senior members of his admin, big donors, members of Congress, and people in the media had inside knowledge of the decline and covered it up, and that resulted in his late withdrawal making it more difficult for Harris or another Democrat to defeat Trump. Fine. If they want to write that book and think that people care about that in 2025, that is their business. I said in 2022 and 2023 that I did not want Biden to run again - but for other reasons than that, although I also felt that trying to do a second term through age 86 when he was clearly losing miles off his fastball was too ambitious. I understood his reasons for wanting to stay in, and fully supported him for as long as he did. But I don’t care about any of that right now, and I am certain low-info swing voters who tend to decide elections care even less than me. What I have a problem with is three things: 1. Using their networks and platforms to promote and push the book 24/7 in 2025. 2. Other legacy media outlets breathlessly hyping and promoting the book as “news.” 3. The media now making this a central focus of their interviews of Democratic candidates running in the 2026 and 2028 elections. I follow hundreds of journalists from legacy media across the spectrum. For the past week, I have watched them hype and push this book relentlessly as if this is breaking news and anyone actually cares about this subject outside the DC beltway. Donald Trump and his administration are systematically dismantling our government, institutions and alliances. They are tearing apart the fabric of the Republic. Their corruption is naked and unprecedented. They are investigating and jailing their political opponents. But the media right now is focused on a retired president’s aging process. Here is a small sample of the headlines: But far worse than that is the media seeking to discredit Democratic presidential hopefuls in 2028 by asking them constantly what they knew about Biden and when they knew it. This is also happening with candidates for the senate and congress in 2026. This is not an issue American voters care about. Pete Buttigieg, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker and others have been asked about the Tapper/Thompson book repeatedly this week. Politico ran this headline this morning: ‘Dems confront the first real litmus test of 2028: Biden’s mental acuity.’ It is only a litmus test if Democrats allow it to be one - because it isn’t a litmus test for the American voter. The media wants to push that narrative, and Democrats must stop playing nice with them on it - because really this is just about journalists’ bank accounts and egos. It is about the legacy they are trying to create for themselves, not the people they are supposed to be covering. This should not be a litmus test. It is something only the media cares about. Democrats should take a page out of the Republican/MAGA playbook on this one - simply ignore these questions when asked. My answer would be that I am more focused on Trump, Stephen Miller and Elon Musk’s autocratic takeover of America. Do you want to talk about taxes, the budget, social security, Medicaid, immigration, deportations, attacks on lawyers and the judiciary - or do you want to talk about Joe Biden. Because I’m not here to talk about Biden. Republicans have trashed Tapper/Thompson by arguing that if there was a grand conspiracy to cover things up, they were in position to know the truth and made themselves part of the cover up. Thompson counters by noting that he wrote several articles about Biden’s walk and new shoes (which he got after he fractured his foot). Give me a break. Tapper repeatedly argued with Republican guests on his show who suggested Biden was cognitively unfit. Now he wants us to believe he was duped. This is also a reason why people who care the most about this country continue to abandon these media outlets. It is why CNN’s ratings are in the tank - especially Tapper’s, and why they hunger for truth tellers who aren’t trying to sell books and aren’t angling for their next job with a rival media company. If people refuse to buy what they are selling, and political leaders refuse to play their games, they will continue to become less relevant until they learn to change. Until then, we and others like us will continue to do what we do every day - bring you the truth about things that really matter and impact people’s lives. We have no books to sell and aren’t looking for invitations to DC cocktail parties. We only have news to present and people to hold accountable who are causing serious damage to this country. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.