Reporter Alex Thompson declined to press Democratic California Gov.
Gavin Newsom on his long-running defense of former President Joe Bidens mental fitness during a Friday appearance on The Axios Show, sidestepping a central issue in the ongoing debate over Bidens capacity to serve.
Thompson, who co-wrote with CNN host Jake Tapper the 2025 book Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, briefly brushed against the topic in an interview released Thursday, according to the Daily Caller. The book itself details what the authors describe as a sweeping effort inside the Democratic establishment and legacy media to conceal Bidens decline from the public, yet Thompson did not confront Newsom over his role in that effort.
During the Axios segment, Thompson asked Newsom about CNNs reporting that he and Biden have been speaking by phone in recent weeks, giving the governor an opening to clarify his past public assurances about Bidens condition. Newsom, however, refused to discuss the substance of those calls and instead rushed to reaffirm his allegiance to the former president.
I was so loyal to the end, and I happily will take the arrows on that and defend that, Newsom said, preemptively justifying his earlier praise of Biden and his dismissal of concerns about the then-presidents mental acuity. At the time, Newsom had derided reports of Bidens decline as idle chatter and mishegoss and blamed the controversy on the Fox News anger machine.
Thompson attempted to narrow the focus by asking, Are you talking to him about foreign policy, current events? What are you talking about? but did not pursue the more obvious question of whether Newsom had misled the public. Newsom responded with a soft, almost casual description of their recent conversations, portraying Biden as a retired elder statesman rather than a former commander-in-chief whose capacity had been shielded from voters.
Last time I talked to him, without breaking trust, he was, again, very appreciative of some of the work we were trying to do, fight fire with fire. But I was talking to him about, hes almost at the end of writing his memoir and book and how hes spending the day, Newsom said. And to be candid with you, its just, frankly, I was just checking in on his health. How you doing?'
Bidens personal office disclosed on May 18 that the former president had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a development that further sharpened questions about transparency surrounding his health. Yet even with that context, the Axios exchange remained notably gentle, avoiding the harder scrutiny conservatives have long argued is routinely reserved for Republicans.
Thompson did edge toward the core controversy when he asked whether that Biden that youre talking to would be capable of being president today. Newsom offered a vague response, and the Axios video then cut to the next topic without any follow-up or reference to the governors earlier insistence that Biden was fully capable while in office.
On his own program, This Is Gavin Newsom, in April 2025, the governor claimed he had only once witnessed any sign of Bidens diminished mental acuity before the disastrous June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump. I, of course, never experienced any of that, quite literally. So, I would have been lying if I played to that, except one event and thats the fundraiser the infamous George Clooney fundraiser where it was clear, and that, for me, jet lag was as easy a way to describe that as anything else, Newsom said. But it was clear that something was a little bit off or different.
Despite that admission, Newsom continued to present himself as a steadfast Biden loyalist even after the Clooney event and the widely panned debate performance. He repeatedly insisted in October that he was proud to stand behind Bidens candidacy and presidency.
I was proud to be one of the last people standing Im proud of the fact that I stood up for him, he said. And Im proud of the fact that he was our president I was proud to go out there and support him.
Im just not someone whos going to turn my back on someone I just believe, again, you go home with the one who brought you to the dance, he added, framing his defense of Biden as a matter of personal loyalty rather than accountability to voters.
That loyalty came even as Bidens public missteps mounted, including a September 2022 incident in which he appeared to call on the late Republican Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski to stand up, seemingly forgetting she had died in a car crash the previous month. By June 2024, a series of clips showing Biden freezing, wandering off, and committing high-profile gaffes intensified concerns about his fitness, raising the very questions Thompsons book purports to expose but that his Axios interview conspicuously declined to press on Newsom.
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