Congressional hearings can serve the public — when followed by real action. They can expose wrongdoing, shape public opinion, and force accountability. But when the hearings end and nothing follows, they become a substitute for meaningful oversight — a way to check the box and collect headlines without doing meaningful work.
That’s the routine Americans have come to expect: dramatic sound bites, viral clips, and lawmakers patting themselves on the back for sending strongly worded letters. Unless Congress breaks that habit now, the autopen scandal risks becoming just another lost opportunity.
The Biden administration may have dodged the 25th Amendment, but Congress can’t dodge its duty.
Last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on the use of the autopen under President Joe Biden. The stakes couldn’t be higher. As Oversight Project board member Theo Wold put it in his testimony, the United States did not have a fully functioning president for the past four years. Biden’s longtime Senate colleagues know it — and should have testified as fact witnesses. Instead, all but two Senate Democrats — Dick Durbin of Illinois and Peter Welch of Vermont — boycotted the hearing. That includes Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), whose receipt of an autopenned pardon raises a glaring conflict of interest.
Senate Republicans showed up and asked the right questions. They grasped the core issue: Biden’s lack of capacity and his inability to direct subordinates. Unlike previous administrations, the Biden White House appears to have used the autopen not for convenience, but as a way to obscure who actually ran the government — skirting the 25th Amendment without invoking it.
The hearing raised serious constitutional concerns. What happens when top officials prefer an incapacitated president over triggering a process designed to protect the country? Several senators floated the idea of reforming the 25th Amendment. That’s a conversation worth having. But it means nothing without follow-through.
So what should happen now?
First, the Senate should demand every record related to the Biden administration’s use of the autopen. That includes documentation of who authorized its use and a log of every instance it was used. As Wold testified, these records exist — or their absence signals a much deeper problem. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) quickly pledged to pursue them.
Those materials fall under the Presidential Records Act and remain off-limits to the public. Trust me, we would have been in court months ago to procure their release if we could get them. Only Congress or the Trump administration can obtain them. If they stall, they’ll be complicit in the cover-up.
Second, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson must testify. Their book “Original Sin” relied on more than 200 sources. If they know something the public doesn’t, they have a moral — and potentially legal — obligation to come forward. The Senate invited them to the hearing. They declined. The next request should come in the form of a subpoena.
RELATED: Oversight Project over target: Dems seethe as facade of autopen presidency comes crashing down
Third, Congress should use the same tools the January 6 select committee wielded with abandon. That includes subpoenas for documents, phone and bank records, and private communications from staffers and political operatives who helped prop up the “autopen administration.” If these individuals claim executive privilege, Trump should waive it — just as Biden did during the Jan. 6 probe.
Finally, the House had better follow through. Kentucky Republican Chairman James Comer’s promised interviews and depositions can’t be treated as political theater. They must become the backbone of a real investigation.
Accountability won’t happen unless the public demands it. Americans should track every step — or failure to act — and hold Congress to its promises. The country doesn’t need another performance. It needs answers.
The Biden administration may have dodged the 25th Amendment, but Congress can’t dodge its duty. The biggest scandal in modern American history demands more than six-minute cable news hits and clips for social media. It requires courage, subpoenas, and a willingness to pull every legal lever available.
The public has largely caught on to the ineffectiveness of “strongly worded letters” and now will have a perfect test case to judge whether Congress means business or if it’s the same old tired, do-nothing routine.
It’s time to get off X and into the trenches.
Jake Tapper's new book, “Original Sin,” and the ongoing investigations into the Biden autopen scandal continue to fuel the growing conviction that President Biden was just the puppet behind a cabal of operatives who ran the country. At this point, even the legacy media, which was complicit in the cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline, is admitting it.
So who then was in charge of the nation?
Glenn Beck did a little experiment and asked artificial intelligence to “analyze every single claim, speculation, insider report, congressional hearing” related to who was making the decisions in the Biden White House. He also asked it to “speculate on how a deep state president would be set as a cutout”: “What would it take to run the country, and how would you keep it from the American public?”
Its answer was shocking.
The AI platform “said there were two groups of people within the White House that would be needed” to pull off such a scandal — the decision-makers and the cover-up artists.
For the former group, it named Jeff Zients and Ron Klain — both Biden’s White House chief of staff at one point — as likely culprits. It also listed Annie Tomasini, former White House deputy chief of staff and director of Oval Office operations; Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser; and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s U.S. national security adviser, as probable players.
For the suppression squad, AI pinpointed Mike Donilon, a senior Biden adviser, Anthony Bernal, a senior adviser to Jill Biden, Ashley Williams, special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office operations, and Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president.
Interestingly, when Glenn Beck recently had Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, on the show to discuss his intentions to expose the corruption that took place, he named Neera Tanden, Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, and Ashley Williams as the top people he wanted to talk to.
When Glenn spoke with Lindy Li, a former DNC finance member and Harris campaign surrogate, she expressed anger at the cover-up, naming Jeff Zients and Annie Tomasini as the two people she was most suspicious of.
In December 2024, the Wall Street journal released a damning piece suggesting that President Biden was so mentally compromised, he wasn’t even communicating with major Cabinet members. The piece named Mike Donalin, Steve Ricchetti, Ron Klain, Annie Tomasini, and Jake Sullivan as likely culprits in the cover-up. Then in January 2025, the New York Times published an article arguing that Biden’s inner circle hid his cognitive decline, highlighting Mike Donalin, Steve Ricchetti, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal.
And finally, just last month, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, “Original Sin,” debuted. In the 200+ interviews the duo conducted, the names Mike Donalin, Steve Ricchetti, and Ron Klain came up the most often.
“Sometimes AI is a little bit spooky,” says Glenn, reacting to how the platform aligned perfectly with other reports. However, “We can't go off of AI; we can't go off of hearsay; we can't go off of anything. We need the DOJ, after the Congress has investigated, to then pick it up and investigate themselves with the FBI and then prosecute if there were crimes committed."
To hear more, watch the video above.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
According to CNN’s Jake Tapper, he and co-author, Axios journalist Alex Thompson, had to interview over 200 people to write their book “Original Sin,” which exposed the calculated cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline during his four-year term.
Mark Levin has one question, though: Why go through the pain of interviewing so many people when you could’ve just interviewed yourself?
Before President Trump was elected, Democrats and the mainstream media had a two-tier plan: “Get [Donald Trump] in prison” and “protect Joe Biden,” says Levin.
Jake Tapper was in on both.
But now that the plans have tanked, Tapper needs a get-out-of-jail-free card, and he’s found it in the form of writing a phony tell-all book that ironically exposes the leftist cover-up campaign that he was deeply embedded in.
“Original Sin” is just another Democrat ploy to “rewrite history,” says Levin.
And yet — liberal and conservative media outlets alike are interviewing Tapper and constantly quoting all the “gossip” in the book.
But they fail to see the glaring irony: If Tapper were a true journalist, as he clearly aims to present himself, then he would’ve reported on all the damning information on Biden as he was learning it instead of “[saving] it” for his exposé.
Levin wonders when he started conducting these interviews. Did they overlap with his CNN segments where he chided and dismissed anyone who dared to question Biden’s cognitive state?
The information Tapper was secretly stashing away for his own personal gain was nothing less than “the greatest political scandal in American history,” says Levin. And now, he “is literally making millions of dollars despite his role” is squashing the narrative that Joe Biden was cognitively unfit to serve as president.
On his book tour, Tapper has been dropping the word “humility” over and over again, admitting that his coverage of Biden’s mental state fell short. It's not an admission that he was complicit in the cover-up, though. Levin says don't fall for the ruse. It's the “PR firm” telling him to use that word, not because it reflects his genuine feelings but because it will help him sell more books.
He hopes that “one day somebody will write a book about the people who wrote a book and had humility.”
To hear more of Levin’s commentary and see some of the footage of Tapper’s “humble” book tour, watch the clip above.
To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
We were told to follow the science. We were told to trust the media. We were told the “adults” were back in charge.
Now, after years of narratives that often disguised more than they revealed, two prominent figures — CNN anchor Jake Tapper and former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — have released books that strategically admit what much of the public already knew: The full truth wasn’t offered when it mattered most.
Redemption begins with humility, not a hardcover release date.
Tapper’s new book, “Original Sin,” co-authored with Axios’ Alex Thompson, presents itself as a political thriller. But its real value lies in what it reveals — consciously or not — about the political and media class’ calculated suppression of uncomfortable truths.
According to Tapper’s reporting, President Joe Biden’s inner circle was “rattled” by his apparent mental and physical decline — yet worked to shield it from being seen by the public. The book describes a White House where denial wasn’t just a strategy — it was a requirement.
The Wall Street Journal described “Original Sin” as capturing “a conspiracy in plain view” — a culture in which aides and allies chose silence over honesty, spin over transparency, and, ultimately, their own job security over the voters’ right to know.
This admission, coming now in 2025, would land differently had Tapper not been one of the very voices leading the national chorus of “nothing to see here!” In fact, many of the same journalists now embracing post hoc honesty were the ones who derided and dismissed concerns about the president’s cognitive health as partisan smear or conspiracy theory.
And the American people noticed.
Despite extensive promotion across CNN and various media platforms, “The Lead with Jake Tapper” experienced its lowest ratings since August 2015. According to Nielsen data, the program averaged only 525,000 total viewers between April 28 and May 25, marking a 25% decline from the same period last year. This significant drop occurred despite the high-profile release of “Original Sin” and an accompanying media tour, the New York Post reported.
The book is following a similar trajectory, having only sold just over 54,000 copies in its first week of release. Compare that to Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House,” which sold over 1 million copies its first week.
Cue Ronald Reagan’s famous line, “There you go again,” as Jean-Pierre’s forthcoming memoir, “Independent,” also seeks to reframe her time in the public eye. From her position behind the White House lectern, Jean-Pierre frequently repeated talking points that proved to be misleading or outright false. She insisted the border was secure, the economy was strong, and the president was sharp — all while video clips, inflation rates, and rising crime told another story.
In fairness, press secretaries are paid to spin. But spin becomes something more troubling when it is used to insulate a president from basic scrutiny — or when it misleads the public during moments of national consequence. If Jean-Pierre is now prepared to acknowledge the strain of carrying water for bad policies, that would be welcome. But the timing — conveniently aligned with a book launch — raises an unavoidable question: Why didn’t the truth matter until it could be monetized?
I believe in second chances. I believe in forgiveness. But as someone who also believes in responsibility and truth-telling, I have little patience for public figures who withhold candor until the book advance clears. Redemption begins with humility, not a hardcover release date.
If Tapper and Jean-Pierre had come forward years ago — if they had endured the risk of telling the truth in real time — they might be worth celebrating. But this isn’t courage. It’s career rehab.
Now consider someone like Tulsi Gabbard.
As a sitting Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate in 2020, Gabbard called out her own party for embracing censorship, racial essentialism, and permanent war. She stood on a debate stage and denounced what she called “an elitist cabal of warmongers,” earning the scorn of her colleagues and the legacy media. Hillary Clinton even baselessly smeared her as a Russian asset. Gabbard didn’t wait for the polling to shift or a book contract to come through — she risked her future in real time.
Eventually, she left the Democratic Party, but not before paying a price for telling some highly inconvenient truths. That’s what integrity looks like. You don’t wait for the winds to change — you stand firm when they blow hardest.
Contrast Gabbard with Tapper and Jean-Pierre. Their books reveal what many Americans suspected: that much of what we were told during the Biden years — from the state of the president’s health to the “success” of his policies — was concocted more for optics than accuracy.
RELATED: Who ran the White House? Ask Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson under oath
But their revelations come not from principle, but from convenience. It’s safe to speak out now. The public mood has shifted. Their platforms are shrinking. The political protection is gone.
America continues to suffer the consequences of schools closed, churches locked, speech silenced, borders breached, and families squeezed by inflation. These outcomes weren’t accidental. Leaders defended them at the time, then later pretended they had known better all along. They chose opportunism over accountability.
The darker concern runs even deeper: This cycle has become routine. Politicians and pundits lie or mislead while the incentives favor silence. They play along when it pays. Then, when the polls shift and the public turns sour, they rebrand — posing as truth-tellers who claim they always had doubts, always saw what others missed.
Next come the book deals, podcast tours, and cushy contributor gigs.
We now live in a country where consequences get outsourced and apologies turn into revenue. Lie when it’s profitable. Confess when it sells. And hope the public forgets who helped dig the hole in the first place.
But many of us do remember. We, the people, remember.
If Tapper and Jean-Pierre want to make amends, they should start with a simple, unqualified apology — not to their publishers or media friends, but to the American people. The public paid the price for the misinformation they amplified and defended. That’s who deserves the truth now.
Just when you think CNN’s Jake Tapper can’t become an even bigger media hack than he already is, he finds a way to prove you wrong. The latest incident of the network host’s shoddy conduct as a so-called “journalist” came on Friday during his interview with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Among the topics […]
June 27 really needs to be a national holiday wherein we collectively observe the bottomless depravity of the dying news media. We could call it something like “Biden Debate Day.” The date is significant because it was the start of a 131-day journey that showed just how far the media were willing to go to […]
The 'Original Sin' wasn’t the White House cover up, nor was it being deceived by staffers, as Jake Tapper asserts. It was the sin of denial.
Want a laugh? The spinner-in-chief for much of President Joe Biden’s deepfake tenure is coming out with a new book to combat 'disinformation.'
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