Axios reporter Alex Thompson delivered a sharp critique of the Biden administration and the media establishment at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, accusing both of covering up President Joe Biden's mental decline and undermining public trust in journalism.
Speaking after accepting the White House Correspondents' Association's Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence, Thompson said, "President Biden's decline and its coverup by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception." He added, "Being truth tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story. And some people trust us less because of it."
Thompson had been one of the few Beltway journalists to report extensively on concerns inside the White House over Biden's cognitive abilities, publishing accounts of top aides privately expressing alarm and taking steps to conceal the president's struggles ahead of the June debate against Donald Trump. Following Biden's disastrous debate performance and subsequent withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, broader media acknowledgment of his condition grew.
"I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust, and being defensive about them further erodes it," Thompson said. "We should have done better."
Thompson's remarks arrive amid a deep erosion of confidence in the media. A Gallup poll from October 2024 found only 31% of Americans expressed a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the media to report the news accurately.
In a related development earlier this year, NPR CEO Katherine Maher testified before Congress that the outlet failed to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story thoroughly during the 2020 election. "NPR acknowledges we were mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively and sooner," Maher told lawmakers.
Tensions between the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) and the Trump administration also surfaced during the event. WHCA President Eugene Daniels emphasized, "We journalists are a lot of things. We are competitive and pushy. We are impatient and sometimes we think we know everything. What we are not is the opposition. What we are not is the enemy of people. What we are not is the enemy of the state."
Unlike previous years, the dinner did not feature a headliner comedian after late-night host Amber Ruffin's planned appearance was canceled. Ruffin had reportedly wanted to refer to the Trump administration as a "bunch of murderers," intensifying political sensitivities around the event.
Thompson's book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, co-authored with CNN's Jake Tapper, is scheduled for release on May 20.
