Jake Tapper's book is 'a slap in the face' to anyone who questioned Biden’s fitness for office, Lindy Li says
A prominent former fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) blasted CNN’s Jake Tapper’s upcoming book as "a slap in the face" to people who were scolded for questioning former President Biden’s fitness for office.
Lindy Li, a well-known fundraiser who raised money for the Democrats' 2024 presidential campaign, announced her exit from the party in December after being ostracized for criticizing then-Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. She was a loyal supporter of President Biden until she called for him to step aside because he was too old to serve a second term and believes she was gaslighted into initially believing Biden was sharp as a tack.
Tapper was roasted online earlier this year when his upcoming book, "Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," was announced. The book, co-written by Axios journalist Alex Thompson, was attacked as hypocritical after critics unearthed a 2020 video of Tapper lecturing then-Trump 2020 campaign advisor Lara Trump for calling out Biden’s mental faculties.
Li appeared on "The Rubin Report" last week and host Dave Rubin questioned if people genuinely felt Biden was fit to serve another term or if they were simply "in on the unsaid thing." Through much of 2024, Biden's cognitive issues were dismissed by Democrats and liberal media outlets as
"Sort of reminds me... Jake Tapper announced he has a book about the scandal around Biden’s health. It’s like, ‘Dude, you were running cover for it for three years while some of us were talking about it literally four or five years ago,’" host Dave Rubin said.
Li rolled her eyes as Rubin mentioned Tapper’s book, saying he "pisses me off so much."
In 2022, Tapper offered Biden a soft question about what he would say to Democratic voters who were concerned about his age and the job's demands.
Tapper questioned White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in 2023 about whether Biden was "too old" to be president and also pressed former Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield about the Robert Hur special counsel report last year that delved into Biden's memory lapses, but he took heat in a New York Post column after his book's announcement for not sufficiently sounding the alarm on Biden's decline until after the June debate he moderated.
After the debate, Tapper spoke sharply about Biden's issues, even calling him "not coherent" at one point. Biden shortly after dropped out of the race and was replaced on the ticket by Kamala Harris.
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Li said she knew Biden "in a private capacity," and didn’t see the CNN anchor around enough for him to have insight into his fitness for office behind-the-scenes.
"With Jake Tapper, he wasn’t in the room, and I’ve never seen him at any events, so all the intel from this book is second-hand," Li said.
"Let’s be honest what it was," she continued. "It was an out-right lie that he was cognitively fit."
Li said Tapper’s book "is like a slap in the face to those of us who were punished for bringing it up."
Li also claimed her appearances on CNN dried up once she publicly said Biden was too old to seek another term.
"I used to be on it all the time. I was a regular," she said, referring to CNN, not Tapper's program specifically.
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When asked for comment, CNN directed Fox News Digital to a representative for Tapper who is handling the book.
"Time and again, Jake raised concerns about President Biden’s mental stamina on his show, questioned Biden officials directly on air, and consistently encouraged open discussion and debate on the issue. Any claim that Jake sought to discourage these conversations is demonstrably false and contradicted by the clear record of his reporting," the representative for Tapper told Fox News Digital.
"Jake and Alex's book contains first-hand accounts of President Biden's state based on interviews with more than 200 people," the representative continued. "Stay tuned for what they discovered."
Li previously said her decision to leave the party "wasn't easy" but was the "result of a decade-long progression."
"It took a while for me to get here over the course of the past year. I just realized that the values of the Democratic Party are so incongruous to mine," Li said. "It just contradicts everything I believe, everything from open borders to woke and DEI insanity. It's just not my party anymore."
Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays and Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.