Axios reporter pushes back on Biden's denial of mental decline, saying White House insiders disagree

Fox News

09-05-2025

Axios reporter Alex Thompson remarked Thursday that members of the Biden White House would "disagree" with President Joe Biden's assertion that claims about his mental decline were false.
During an interview on "The View," President Joe Biden and his wife Jill were asked about new books from Democratic sources that claimed there was a "dramatic decline" in the president's mental faculties during the later part of his term.
"They are wrong," Joe Biden responded. "There's nothing to sustain that."
Jill Biden added, "One of the things, I think, is that the people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us. And they didn't see how hard Joe worked every single day. I mean, he'd get up. He'd put in a full day, and then at night he would — I'd be in bed, you know, reading my book, and he was still on the phone, reading his briefings. Working with staff. I mean, it was nonstop."
CNN host Boris Sanchez asked Thompson on "CNN News Central" later that day to respond to Biden's comments, leading the Axios reporter to insist there was not only a decline but a cover-up as well.
"Well, I'd say, our reporting shows that many people inside the Biden White House disagree, and they do believe that there was a significant decline and a cover-up of that, especially in 2023 and 2024," Thompson said.
Thompson recently accepted the White House Correspondents' Association's Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage. His reporting closely documented Biden's disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump, the events leading up to it, and Biden's eventual decision to exit the race.
During his acceptance speech, he called out the mainstream media for largely ignoring signs of Biden's decline until it couldn't be denied anymore.
"President Biden's decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception," Thompson said.
"Some people trust [the media] less because of it," he said. "We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows. I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust, and being defensive about them further erodes it."
Thompson concluded, "We should have done better."