Hunter Biden lashed out at CNN anchor Jake Tapper this week, accusing the veteran journalist of “attacking [his] mom” after Tapper criticized Jill Biden’s defense of her husband’s mental fitness in a new memoir.
The latest clash marks another chapter in the long-running feud between Hunter Biden and the CNN host, whose reporting on former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline has upset the Biden family.
“So let me get this straight. Jake Tapper is focused on attacking my Mom,” Hunter Biden wrote on X, responding to a CNN analysis authored by Tapper about Jill Biden’s recently released memoir, View from the East Wing.
In the book, Jill Biden rejects claims that her husband was suffering from significant cognitive impairment during the final months of his presidency and his ultimately unsuccessful 2024 reelection campaign.
“If you knew Joe Biden well, you’d know that if he actually got to the point where he wasn’t capable of doing the job, he would step down,” Jill Biden wrote, according to excerpts cited by Tapper. She further argued that if her husband had displayed signs of serious mental decline, she and his advisers would have acknowledged it.
Tapper challenged those claims.
“All of that is very difficult to believe, if not just downright false,” he wrote in his analysis, arguing that the central question was never about Biden’s character or values, but whether he remained capable of running for president and fufill the duties of his office.
“The issue was never about whether he was good, wise, or had the same values,” Tapper wrote. “It was about his ability to run for president, to win the campaign, and to serve as president.”
Hunter Biden’s social media post also referenced scrutiny he has faced over the years, including questions surrounding his art sales during his father’s presidency.
The dispute comes against the backdrop of ongoing tensions between the Biden family and Tapper following the publication of Original Sin, the bestselling 2025 book Tapper co-authored with Axios reporter Alex Thompson. The book examined concerns about President Biden’s cognitive decline and detailed efforts by aides and allies to shield those concerns from public view.
Hunter Biden has repeatedly attacked Tapper since the book’s release, accusing him of exploiting his father’s struggles for personal and professional gain. In previous interviews, Hunter described Tapper as “irrelevant,” questioned his journalistic integrity, mocked CNN’s ratings, and accused the network of effectively turning its news coverage into a promotional campaign for the book.
The hostility between the two men predates the publication of Original Sin. Hunter Biden has alleged that Tapper repeatedly contacted him during the final months of his brother Beau Biden’s battle with brain cancer in 2015. According to Hunter, he eventually told the CNN anchor to “go f— [himself.]”
Tapper denied those allegations, stating that he never had Hunter Biden’s phone number and never harassed him while Beau Biden was dying.
CNN defended Tapper’s reporting following Hunter Biden’s latest comments.
“This analysis piece by Jake Tapper about a widely discussed, newsmaking book speaks for itself, and is a natural extension of his deeply-sourced reporting work on the Biden administration,” a CNN spokesperson said.
The network also noted that Tapper continues to cover the Trump administration extensively and critically through his daily and weekend programs.
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