Jake Tapper Discusses Book With Katie Couric
After years of minimizing the Hunter Biden controversies that once swirled largely on the margins of mainstream media, CNN anchor Jake Tapper has performed what can only be described as a remarkable public reversal.
In a revealing conversation with veteran journalist Katie Couric, Tapper didn’t just acknowledge the damage Hunter Biden has done—he torched the president’s son with the kind of blunt language rarely heard from legacy network anchors.
Describing Hunter as “unethical, sleazy, and prone to horrible decisions,” Tapper admitted that the president’s son had an outsized influence on the Biden family—likening him to a “chief of staff” steering decisions from behind the scenes. Couric, herself clearly stunned, pressed him on the dynamic, and Tapper doubled down, citing one of Hunter’s most scandalous chapters: his affair with his deceased brother’s widow, which he claimed also involved introducing her to crack cocaine.
WATCH: CNN's Jake Tapper says Hunter Biden "was driving the decision-making for the family."
"He was almost like a chief of staff." Basically, the country was being run by a degenerate crackhead. pic.twitter.com/lzYY1Bubl4
— Errol Webber (@ErrolWebber) May 20, 2025
The remarks mark a stunning departure for a journalist who, during the 2020 election cycle, had dismissed the New York Post’s infamous laptop exposé as “wildly unhinged” and not worthy of airtime. At the time, Tapper echoed the official narrative emerging from the Biden campaign and amplified by former intelligence officials—that the laptop was Russian disinformation. That talking point dominated headlines just long enough to bury the story in the lead-up to the election.
But now, with Joe Biden visibly aging, his approval ratings languishing, and a rematch with Donald Trump looming, Tapper seems intent on rewriting his own role in the media's early dismissal of the scandal.
Alongside Axios journalist Alex Thompson, Tapper co-authored Original Sin, a book that allegedly dives into Biden’s cognitive decline and the inner workings of a protective political machine that kept the public at arm’s length from the truth.
FLASHBACK
On Oct. 22, 2020, CNN's Jake Tapper declared that the growing allegations made against Hunter Biden following the NY Post's reporting on Hunter's laptop were "too disgusting" to repeat on-air and "wildly unhinged." pic.twitter.com/djhFlDK8kz
— Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) June 24, 2024
What’s especially striking is the timing. The political winds have shifted, and some in the press appear to be repositioning themselves accordingly. Where once any critique of Hunter was taboo or conspiratorial, now even high-ranking anchors feel comfortable calling him out—and linking his behavior directly to the dysfunction in the Biden White House.