Democrats Must Apologize for Biden Cover-Up

Democrats constantly accuse Donald Trump of constantly lying. Journalistic factcheckers, who work for Democratic-aligned media companies, back their claims with statistics. But it’s the Democratic Party that’s facing historically low approval ratings. In poll after poll about one issue after another, voters say they trust Republicans more.

A major contributing factor to the diminishment of the public’s trust in the Democratic Party is the stream of revelations that Joe Biden spent much if not all of his presidency mentally incapacitated. 72% of voters told the May 21st Rasmussen poll that “it’s a serious scandal that White House staffers were aware of Biden’s declining mental condition but worked to conceal his condition from the public and members of Congress, including 48% who consider the scandal very serious.” Another Rasmussen survey, conducted May 27th, indicates that Americans think Democrats have also been covering up the truth about the former president’s physical health: “63%…believe it’s likely that Biden has been suffering from prostate cancer since at least 2021, including 43% who consider it very likely.”

We’re waiting for more data about the Biden effect. But you don’t have to be a political genius to suss out that the public doesn’t like being lied to, really doesn’t like being lied to day after day for years, and really really really doesn’t like knowing they’re being lied to. Having your intelligence insulted is more infuriating than being deceived.

When asked about their cover-up of Biden, Democratic pols answer that they’re “looking forward.” Which is exactly the opposite of what crisis management experts—and this is definitely a crisis for Democrats—recommend.

True, refusing to comment is sometimes an organization’s least-bad move. When facts are unclear, it’s smarter to announce an investigation (a “holding statement”) rather than to say something that further erodes trust when that statement later proves incorrect. That’s not the case here, though. To those who paid attention, Biden’s dementia was evident when he ran in 2020.

Candidly admitting fault can increase legal exposure—anything you say will be used against you. Though congressional Republicans are threatening to investigate what Dems knew about Biden’s brain and when, the real risk to Biden’s enablers is political embarrassment, not prison time.

In most crises, it’s best to come clean. Stonewalling makes things worse. Studies of crisis communication strategies, such as those based on Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) by Timothy Coombs, show that refusing to talk about an issue or blowing it off as no big deal—as Democrats are doing now—increases the public’s perception that you’re guilty or irresponsible.

Democrats beware! Your silence is creating a vacuum that will allow your GOP enemies to shape a narrative you otherwise might have helped to shape in your favor. That’s what happened to BP after it deflected and downplayed the severity of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; environmentalists framed the company as an eco-criminal. United Airlines’ decision to delay its apology to the Asian passenger who was dragged off an overbooked flight made the company look racist as well as cruel. Toyota’s corporate culture of silence cost it dearly after the carmaker pretended that a series of brake problems were figments of their customers’ imaginations.

Better to come clean sooner rather than later. For Democrats, now—with the midterm elections well over a year away—is the least worst time.

The gold standard for crisis management is still the 1982 Tylenol poisoning crisis when a still-unidentified maniac killed seven people in Chicago. It must have been tempting for Johnson & Johnson to deny that it was the company’s fault. After all, it wasn’t. Instead, the company introduced tamper-proof packaging and recalled every single bottle at a cost of $100 million. Transparency and action worked. Within a year, Tylenol had recovered 90% of previous sales.

In the case of the Democratic Party and their media allies, on the other hand, the Biden cover-up is their fault. The smart move would be to emulate what the KFC UK did in 2018, when it foolishly switched to a delivery partner that couldn’t supply enough chickens to hundreds of the company’s restaurants. The company posted updates to social media and ran a funny “FCK” apology ad in newspapers that won PR awards. Share prices and sales bounced back within weeks. Like the Democrats, Southwest Airlines was caught dead to rights, its sin being cheaping out on overdue upgrades to IT infrastructure. When the antiquated system crashed, thousands of flights were canceled. CEO Bob Jordan apologized and promised to invest in upgrades right away. Customers forgave.

If Democrats want to recover their credibility any time soon, they must apologize. Party leaders—Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, Kamala Harris—should hold an hours-long press conference where they repeat a message along these lines: “We lied to you about Joe Biden. We knew he wasn’t up to the job of president, but we covered that up. We were so desperate to beat Donald Trump, so panicked that he would turn us into a fascist country, that we lost sight of what makes American democracy great—the right of a free people to choose its leaders. That choice is only legitimate when the voters know everything they need to know. Democrats don’t win by out Republican-ing the Republicans, and we don’t win by out-lying them. We screwed up. We’ve learned from our mistake. It won’t happen again.”

Throw some people under the bus to demonstrate your party’s willingness to police itself. Pelosi is 85 and semi-retired; she could step down. Harris doesn’t seem to have much of a political future anyway, not least because she had to have known all about what was going on with Biden and abdicated her 25th Amendment duty to move for his removal. Consider pushing out some of the oldest members of Congress, like Steny Hoyer (85) and Jim Clyburn (84), and definitely get rid of those whose mental acuity is seriously in question, like John Fetterman, to avoid repeats of the awkward spectacle that marked Dianne Feinstein’s final years in the Senate.

Most importantly, take action. Don’t merely cooperate with a Republican investigation, lead one of your own. Establishing the precedent that a president who suffers from dementia should be kicked out could be useful in the near future, considering Trump’s own advancing years (78). Make the party more transparent by, for example, livestreaming all meetings of the Democratic National Committee. Make it more democratic by getting rid of superdelegates in national elections and supporting insurgent outsider candidates if and when they win primaries.

If Democrats want to look forward, they first must clean up the mess they made in the past.

(Ted Rall, the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of “Never Mind the Democrats. Here’s WHAT’S LEFT.” Subscribe: tedrall.Substack.com.)

5 Comments. Leave new

  • I need help understanding the relationship between “Biden’s dementia was evident when he ran in 2020” and “it’s a serious scandal that White House staffers were aware of Biden’s declining mental condition but worked to conceal his condition from the public.” My question is did we the public know this all along or were we duped?

    Personally, I voted against Biden at every opportunity, except when he was running against Trump. I knew full well what I was doing and I have no regrets.

  • Another question: with “63% … believe it’s likely that Biden has been suffering from prostate cancer since at least 2021, including 43% who consider it very likely” are there some words missing? This is notable and bad if the statement is that 63% believe that Biden /knew about/ his prostate cancer since at least 2021. If he didn’t know about the cancer but had it anyway, this is only as exciting as “why doesn’t he have better doctors?”

    • The majority of men who survive into old age do have some form of prostate cancer, but the difference is if it’s an aggressive form or “indolent”. Up until recently all prostate cancer was treated aggressively, but that came with bad side effects like incontinence. A friend’s father who was in his 90s was treated this way and it really ruined his quality of life, and he was mentally sharp too. The consensus of doctors was that standard of care changed to less screening. So this did Biden have cancer for a long time? argument is not as serious as has been insinuated.

  • alex_the_tired
    June 5, 2025 9:48 AM

    A lot to unpack. I think you’re a little too broad with some of your examples and “fixes.”

    To wit: the passenger dragged off the plane? Read the ticket boilerplate. The airline reserves the right to tell any passenger to get off the plane. It isn’t fun, but it’s on the ticket. The guy who got dragged off the plane? I hate the airlines. I won’t take planes unless I literally have no other possible way of traveling. But when you’re on that plane? You don’t own the plane. You don’t own the seat. It’s a bad example to cite in this instance.

    Further: getting rid of the elder democrats? As you point out, they’re mostly quite old. It’s a “one for the team” gesture that absolutely stinks to high heaven specifically because there are no genuine consequences to it. It’s like fining Jeff Bezos $100 a day. So he uses one less picture of Ben Franklin to wipe his precious backside.

    Going on the assumption that the narrative we’re all being told now is true, it’s a very clear situation: Heather has two mommies and the U.S. had two coups. One was on Jan. 6, and one was deliberate and protracted and committed by a number of highly placed democrats and enabled by a Beltway press corps that failed to do its job (whether by willful deceit or by gross incompetence).

    The investigation should have started already. Ted’s got that right. And he’s got it right that it has to be vigorous. I would use the word merciless. The people who made this happen, the people who let this happen, no matter their age or political viability, should be incarcerated for LONG sentences, and not in luxe “detention facilities.” Pelosi should be made to stand in the cafeteria line with all the other inmates. She should get used to using a mop on the corridors and having her cell tossed on a random basis for contraband. (Remember when Chelsea Manning got punished for having an expired tube of toothpaste in her cell?) These people should be forbidden from ever holding elected office again. Their congressional pensions and benefits (lifetime healthcare) should be forfeited and clawbacks for salary and benefits should be activated all the way back to the beginning of Joe Biden’s campaign.

    Don’t make an example of them. Make a really thorough example of them. This wasn’t about “We were so desperate to beat Donald Trump, so panicked that he would turn us into a fascist country, that we lost sight of what makes American democracy great.” This was “We were so desperate (to keep Bernie Sanders from winning and) to beat Donald Trump, so panicked that he would turn us into a fascist country, that we DID turn this into a fascist country. We totally subverted the democratic process which is exactly what fascists do.”

  • What about Karine Jean-Pierre hawking her book about leaving the Democratic Party? Is it worth reading?

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