Tapper Torches Tim Walz On Harris’ ‘Told You So’ Moment In Recent Speech

On Sunday, CNN’s Jake Tapper challenged Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on whether Democrats should admit that President Joe Biden was not capable of seeking re-election.

“Don’t you think your party needs to acknowledge that President Biden was not up for the job of running for re-election, and that this was a major mistake?” Tapper asked. Walz responded that although Biden ultimately chose to step aside, he did so under pressure from party leaders such as Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Tapper pushed back: “You all went along with the idea that he was up for it, and he wasn’t, and everybody saw it. And the country rejected it.”

Walz, who ran as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, also emphasized that Democrats need to engage in deep reflection after their loss to President Donald Trump.

Tapper questioned Walz about Harris’ recent remarks in California, where she said, “I’m not here to say I told you so.”

He asked pointedly, “What does ‘I told you so’ really mean here? I mean, people heard her message. They did not vote for her. She lost every battleground state. You yourself have criticized the Harris-Walz campaign for being too cautious. She may have told the American people, you know, she may have warned the American people, but she didn’t do it compellingly enough to win.”

Walz admitted his own responsibility for the campaign’s shortcomings and voiced some self-criticism. He acknowledged that Harris had made efforts to warn the public about Trump, though those efforts may not have resonated.

“I do think the challenge for Democrats, and this is, I think, a structural problem that’s going to take a lot more thinking. Why, with all of that out there, did they not think we were any better than that? And they didn’t, and I’m very concerned with the folks who stayed home,” Walz said, noting that Trump effectively tapped into voters’ top concerns.

Tapper went on to question the party’s credibility with voters on major issues like inflation, immigration, and Biden’s capacity to serve another term.

“And then, fundamentally, this idea that President Biden was up for another four years of the job while Americans in poll after poll, for year after year, were saying, ‘He’s too old to do the job,’ your party stood against all of those things,” Tapper pressed.

Walz credited Biden with successfully leading the nation through the COVID-19 crisis, but admitted Democrats struggled to clearly communicate their message, particularly on immigration.

Tapper’s recent book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” co-authored with Alex Thompson, argues that both the media and the Democratic Party intentionally downplayed Biden’s mental decline.

Interestingly, Tapper himself has faced criticism for allegedly participating in that “cover-up.” During a heated 2020 exchange, he rebuked Lara Trump—former President Trump’s daughter-in-law—for claiming that Biden “very clearly” exhibited “cognitive decline.” Tapper argued at the time that she was targeting his “stutter.”

Lara Trump later recalled the moment in a February post on X: “Seems like a good time to remind everyone that in 2020 Jake Tapper, first, accused me of making fun of people with a stutter (an atrocious accusation) and then attempted to shut me down and ended our interview when I tried to warn people of Joe Biden’s very obvious cognitive issues.”

In a clip from that interview, Lara Trump said, “I’m like ‘Joe, can ya get it out, let’s get the words out, Joe.’ You kind of feel bad for him.”

Tapper responded sharply, “How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?”

“I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is a very clearly a cognitive decline,” Lara replied.

“I think you were mocking his stutter. I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline,” Tapper shot back.