CNN star Jake Tapper has been branded a ‘fraud’ and ‘phony’ over his self-righteous rants about former President Joe Biden’s health cover-up. Tapper’s new book, ‘Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,’ co-authored with Alex Thompson, sparked mass frustration and speculation as many believe the journalist was complicit in Biden’s cover-up. The book itself claims to blow that lid off an alleged White House campaign to hide Biden’s cognitive decline from the American people.

Early reviews of the book, which was released last Tuesday, were quickly overshadowed by allegations that Tapper himself was part of the cover up and is now seemingly trying to rewrite history. ‘He’s such a fraud,’ one user on X wrote after another posted several clips of him speaking about the Steele dossier – a research report on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign that alleged he worked with the Russian government. In the video, Tapper was heard appearing to mock Trump’s previous mentions of being a part of a ‘witch hunt,’ as he said: ‘They’ve caught a few witches by the way, there have been a few witch indictments.’

In the clips from 2018, Tapper also ranted about how terrible it was that there were people who tried to ‘stop an investigation into what happened’ – calling it ‘unpatriotic’ – despite the fact he seemingly did the same when right-leaning media tried to probe Biden’s ailing health during his term. The compilation, along with the release of his new book, enraged many people who strongly believe he is a ‘liar’ who is ‘trying to get out of being held accountable.’

‘He was and still is down for the cause. We are not fooled or amused,’ wrote another. ‘No retractions, no apologies, and no consequences for those who pushed a false narrative for years,’ a user stated. Someone else commented: ‘[Expletive], he’s lying. He knew all along that it was [Expletive] and still carried the democrat party’s water.’

‘I think Jake is going to need to write a lot of books,’ one suggested. ‘His book is sinking faster than the Titanic,’ another joked. The continued backlash over his book comes just after Tapper admitted the coverup of Biden’s decline during his time in office may have been ‘worse than Watergate.’ During an interview with Piers Morgan about his campaign tell-all Original Sin, Tapper compared Biden’s White House deception to President Richard Nixon and one of the greatest scandals in political history.

‘This is an entirely separate scandal. Maybe even worse … maybe even worse,’ Tapper ultimately admitted. ‘It is without question – and maybe even worse than Watergate in some ways because Richard Nixon was in control of his faculties when he was not drinking.’ Morgan then challenged Tapper by asking him to justify his written conclusion that the ‘hiding and cover-up of his deterioration is not Watergate.’

That’s when the CNN anchor actually admitted that he got it wrong. In fact, he told Morgan it ‘may be worse’ than the 1972 scandal, in which the Nixon administration attempted to cover up a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Nixon was forced to resign and ‘Watergate’ is now synonymous with political corruption, becoming somewhat of a benchmark through which subsequent administrations are judged.

Tapper went on to try to clarify the quote Morgan referenced in the book, which concluded: ‘Joe Biden is not Richard Nixon, and the hiding and cover-up of his deterioration is not Watergate.’ Morgan argued: ‘I am not entirely sure I agree, Jake, with that conclusion.’ But Tapper said the only reason they included the caveat in the book was because they had spoken with a Watergate investigator who discussed ‘how powerful the presidency is and how presidents get surrounded by people who have a vested interest in keeping that president propped up.’

Through the enormous backlash he’s received for his reporting in the book, Tapper maintains he trusted Biden and his aides and took them at their word when they assured him that all was well. The recent revelation that Biden has been diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer also sparked rampant conspiracy theories about whether medical professionals were aware of his illness while he was president. Biden’s team has maintained he was not tested for prostate cancer while he was president, and that the diagnosis is recent.

That reassurance has not stopped MAGA loyalists from demanding his long-term physician Kevin O’Connor be subpoenaed to answer questions about Biden’s health. O’Connor repeatedly assured the American public during Biden’s term that he was healthy and could have served another four years. Simultaneously, several of Biden’s closest aides are facing pressure to reveal how much control they had over his autopen after Trump raised questions about who was really in charge during the Biden administration.