Donald Trump can’t stop winning. He even has the Left crawling back to him.
And now a CNN pundit gave a groveling apology that made Trump’s day.
Former CNN pundit Chris Cillizza has issued a mea culpa for brushing off concerns about President Biden’s cognitive decline—a move that critics argue comes far too late.
Cillizza, CNN’s former editor-at-large who left the network in 2022, opened up about his lack of journalistic rigor in questioning Biden’s fitness to serve.
His candid remarks came after two damning reports—one from The New York Times and another from The Wall Street Journal—highlighted troubling signs of the president’s diminished capacity.
“As a reporter, I have a confession to make,” Cillizza admitted in a Thursday video on his YouTube channel.
“I should have pushed harder earlier for more information about Joe Biden’s mental and physical well-being and any signs of decline.”
Cillizza revealed that during his CNN tenure, Republicans frequently pressed him to address Biden’s apparent decline. “I would brush them off,” he confessed, claiming he didn’t see enough “evidence” at the time. But his mea culpa didn’t stop there.
He acknowledged taking the White House at its word while feeling guilty about what he called “age shaming.”
“The White House and the people around Joe Biden were absolutely adamant that suggesting anything—asking the question about whether he was in some physical, mental, or both decline—was offensive. ‘How could you? It’s age shaming.’ And I think that impacted me at some level,” he said.
While admitting he occasionally raised questions, Cillizza confessed he hadn’t pressed the issue hard enough. “
Now, once I left CNN and once it became a little bit more clear to me about Biden’s age, I think I did write pretty regularly and talk pretty regularly about how I wasn’t sure that this guy was up to it,” he said, adding that it became impossible to ignore after the June 27 debate fiasco.
Reading from the Wall Street Journal’s report, Cillizza highlighted Biden’s limited interactions with his cabinet and Democratic lawmakers. He also cited the Times, which called it “hard to imagine” Biden completing another term.
Reflecting on his own reporting failures, Cillizza admitted, “I probably should’ve pushed harder on the Biden age stuff because, in retrospect, it’s clear that the people close to him knew that at best, he had some good days and some bad days.”
The former CNN personality called out what he described as a “shame campaign” orchestrated by Biden’s team.
“People around Biden worked to make you feel bad when you asked whether he was up to the job of being president… and they did a very good job, at least until they couldn’t hide it anymore, of hiding it,” Cillizza explained.
Critics, however, weren’t impressed by his delayed epiphany. Conservative podcast host Meghan McCain lambasted his apology, calling it “pathetically too little too late.”
McCain, referencing Cillizza’s critical commentary about her late father, Sen. John McCain, during his 2008 presidential run, remarked on X, “He ignored Biden because he’s a hack.”
Cillizza insists he’s learned his lesson, claiming his experience will make him more vigilant about age and fitness questions for all leaders—regardless of party.
But for many, his newfound self-awareness feels like a case of closing the barn door long after the horse has bolted.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
