Criticism of Tapper peaked over the past week when he was confronted during a series of media appearances. Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly took the most confrontational approach, criticizing Tapper for his perceived inability to cover Biden’s mental decline as it was happening. But he and co-author Alex Thompson received similar scrutiny from left-leaning commentators.

“Time and time again, when issues came up, you seem to be running cover for the president,” Kelly said on her radio program, arguing Tapper was capable of reporting the story given his sourcing in the White House.

“With the Joe Biden White House, I had [no connections], but you did. You did. … There was no effort, none, to get to the bottom of this. And now you write this book like, ‘There was a cover-up,’” Kelly said. “It could only ever work if you allowed it.”

“There is a way of pressing a man like that on the actual infirmities to bring it home to him and to the audience, and you didn’t do that,” she added, referring to Tapper’s handling of Biden.

“That’s correct, I didn’t, and like I said, I feel tremendous humility about my coverage,” Tapper responded, defending himself by adding he had asked some tough questions about foreign policy. “I wish I did cover the issues of age and acuity, but I wish I had covered them much more.”

The conversation intensified into a direct admission from the CNN anchor that conservative media were “right” to focus on the question of Biden’s fitness despite Tapper’s prior dismissals.

“Alex and I are here to say that conservative media was right and conservative media was correct and that there should be a lot of soul-searching — not just among me, but among the legacy media to begin with, all of us — for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently, 100%,” Tapper told Kelly. “I’m not here to defend coverage that I’ve already acknowledged I wish I could do differently.”

One instance that drew renewed scrutiny was a 2020 interview in which Tapper accused Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of President Donald Trump, of mocking Biden’s stutter when she voiced concerns about his cognitive ability. When she tried explaining, Tapper interrupted and shut down the interview.

During his appearance on Kelly’s show, Tapper said he called Lara Trump “months ago” and apologized.

“After we did the research for this book and I realized how bad his acuity issues were, I called Lara Trump and I said, ‘You were right,’” he said.

The CNN anchor said the conversation “went well” and that she clarified she didn’t intend to mock Biden’s stutter.

Criticism of Tapper wasn’t limited to Republican figures. On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart blasted Tapper and CNN for withholding the information until the book came out.

“Don’t news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out?” Stewart asked rhetorically. “Isn’t that the difference between news and a secret? ‘You won’t believe what we found out’ — no, that’s why I watch breaking news.”

“How f***ing weird it is that the news is selling you a book about news they should have told you was news a year ago, for free,” he added.

Stewart also slammed Tapper for labeling the handling of Biden a “cover-up,” given how widespread suspicions were about the president’s health.

“I understand the excitement over an insidious Democratic cover-up about Joe Biden’s mental decline,” he said. “The thing is, though, it was a terrible cover-up, because we all f***ing knew.”

“There was no cover-up – poll after poll showed vast majorities of the public thought Biden was too old and too out of it to run again,” Stewart said, adding later, “The cover-up doesn’t work when everyone knows you’re lying.”

During the publicity tour, Tapper and Thompson were put in an uncomfortable position when news broke that Biden was diagnosed with prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. Many left-wing figures criticized the two for the book’s release, saying it was inappropriately timed. Tapper explained his reasoning in an interview with PBS, taking on a sympathetic tone that had grown familiar during his tour.

JAKE TAPPER’S ‘BOMBSHELL’ BOOK ON BIDEN’S DECLINE IS A LAUGHABLE ATTEMPT TO REWRITE HISTORY

“Yes, look, obviously our hearts go out to the Bidens,” he said, after Thompson explained his rationale. “I don’t think the book is mean. I don’t think that we’re unsympathetic to all of the horrible things he has endured throughout his life.”

“We have a whole chapter in it about everything he’s gone through and the remarkable ability that Joe Biden has shown to get up and keep going on, despite so many horrible twists of fate that have been thrown at him. But, that said, the American people deserve transparency when it comes to the health care of their leaders, whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden or whoever comes after Trump,” Tapper added.