CNN’s Jake Tapper Hires ‘Queen of Scandal PR’ To Fight Allegations He’s Profiting From Hypocrisy With Biden ‘Cover-Up’ Book

An embattled CNN news personality, Jake Tapper, who has something of a record of sparring with those who criticize him on social media, has turned to a crisis public relations specialist to help with the roll-out of his forthcoming book about the “cover-up” of President Biden’s physical and mental decline. Ahead of the release of the book by Mr. Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Choice To Run Again,” the CNN journalist has hired a veteran public relations specialist, Risa Heller. The decision was first reported by the business and entertainment newsletter Breaker, which noted Ms. Heller is known as the “queen of Scandal PR.” Ms. Heller’s previous clients have included a disgraced former congressman, Anthony Weiner; Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding the investors in her blood-testing company, Theranos; and the parents of fallen crypto-king Sam Bankman-Fried. Ms. Heller also represented one of Mr. Tapper’s biggest boosters, the media executive Jeff Zucker, when he was fired from CNN over an in-office romantic relationship.Mr. Tapper told Breaker he decided to hire Ms. Heller because “this is a political book and Alex and I are doing everything we can to make the book as tight as possible and the rollout as smart as possible.”The well-read newsletter reports that Ms. Heller has advised Mr. Tapper to be “nicer” to reporters who cover the media.That advice comes as the CNN journalist has developed a reputation as being someone who will directly message journalists and commentators who write something unfavorable about him. One liberal podcast host, Matt Duss, shared a screenshot of a private message Mr. Tapper sent him that read, “At least be man enough to tag me with your lies, matt.”Mr. Tapper may most need Ms. Heller’s services when it comes to heading off a growing chorus of critics who accuse him of profiting off an exposé on the cover-up of Mr. Biden’s decline, even though he played, they allege, a key role in the cover-up.A description of the “Original Sin” book says it delivers an “unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.”Some excerpts of the book have been released already. One excerpt says White House aides questioned whether Mr. Biden would need to be in a wheelchair if he won re-election, while another says he failed to recognize George Clooney ahead of a fundraiser with the famous actor. While conservatives have been clamoring for years about Mr. Biden’s obvious physical and mental deterioration — evident to anyone who watched C-SPAN — and criticizing the mainstream media for not covering, or suppressing coverage of, the decline, they are not exactly celebrating Mr. Tapper’s book as a vindication. Instead, many commentators have labeled him a hypocrite.A media reporter for Fox News, Joe Concha, said it is “patently insulting that Jake Tapper is trying to rewrite history while lining his own pockets in the process. He was very much a part of the media cabal who defended Biden.”“Now that Joe Biden is expendable in the eyes of Democrats, and you know the books are going to come, the leaks are going to come, it’s all a CYA for everybody involved,” Mr. Concha said. Journalist Mark Halperin said on his podcast, “Next Up With Mark Halperin,” that it is “not true that it’s only after the election that Jake Tapper could’ve gotten to the bottom of this, and the rest of the Washington press corps could’ve gotten to the bottom of this.”“They were part of the conspiracy and the cover-up. They allowed themselves to believe the ridiculous spin on TV and in public, and privately they allowed themselves to be browbeaten,” he added. Puck’s Dylan Byers suggested that Mr. Biden’s attempt to protect his reputation from the damaging book will be “matched in intensity by the self-promotion and sanctimony of the co-authors themselves.” However, he noted that the two journalists “outperformed the vast majority of their peers” in asking questions about the president’s health. Mr. Thompson, Mr. Tapper’s co-author, was largely alone in reporting on Mr. Biden’s decline in the years before he dropped out of the race in July 2024, and had to endure a hail of criticism from media colleagues who thought his reporting was aiding President Trump. Mr. Tapper, however, did not have a similar record.A conservative journalist, Tom Elliott, shared a clip of Mr. Tapper criticizing Lara Trump in 2020 for saying Mr. Biden was experiencing a “cognitive decline,” as he blamed verbal stumbles on a stutter.“I think you were mocking his stutter, and I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline,” Mr. Tapper said. “I would think somebody in the Trump family would be more sensitive to people who do not have medical licenses diagnosing politicians from afar.”At the end of the interview, Ms. Trump said she found Mr. Biden’s condition “concerning,” to which Mr. Tapper quipped, “Thank you, Lara. I’m sure it’s from a place of concern. We all believe that.”Mr. Tapper’s colleagues at CNN, including CNN news personalities he put on his CNN program — such as Brian Stelter and a then-CNN media reporter, Oliver Darcy — aggressively went after journalists who questioned Mr. Biden’s fitness for office. Mr. Thompson — who’s faced criticism for partnering with Mr. Tapper — defended his co-author by sharing a clip of Mr. Tapper asking questions about Mr. Biden’s age and health. During an appearance on CNN on Wednesday, Mr. Tapper said that he looks back on his coverage of concerns about Mr. Biden with “humility” and an acknowledgment that he did not cover the topic “enough.”Representatives for Mr. Tapper and the publisher of his forthcoming book, Penguin Random House, did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

CNN’s Jake Tapper Hires ‘Queen of Scandal PR’ To Fight Allegations He’s Profiting From Hypocrisy With Biden ‘Cover-Up’ Book

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