Roginsky Discusses Biden Cover Up
Monday night’s CNN panel discussion descended into chaos, not because of unexpected technical glitches or off-air blunders—but because one of its featured guests refused to answer a simple, pressing question.
When Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky was asked whether she believed former President Joe Biden showed signs of cognitive or physical decline during his term—and more importantly, whether the White House had tried to cover it up—her response wasn’t an answer at all. Instead, she launched into a relentless pivot back to Donald Trump, the man who currently holds the Oval Office.
It all unfolded during a conversation sparked by the new book Original Sin, co-authored by CNN’s own Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson. The book scrutinizes the final years of Biden’s presidency, and the panel aimed to unpack its implications. But instead of confronting the difficult subject head-on, Roginsky engaged in what can only be described as strategic deflection.
ME: The Biden cover-up is pretty bad.
DEM: bUt TrUmP!
ME: Ok but the story is the Biden cover up, right?
DEM: tRuMp cOgNiTiVe TeSt!
ME: <Ron Burgundy voice> We are laughing! pic.twitter.com/XPhQluYek5
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) May 20, 2025
Her sparring partner, Republican commentator Scott Jennings, wasted no time calling her out. “Are you arguing that Joe Biden was fine during his term?” he asked directly.
What followed was a verbal tug-of-war, with Roginsky insisting on rerouting the discussion back to Trump’s mental fitness—even though he has already undergone cognitive testing.
Jennings didn’t let it slide. “You keep pivoting back to Trump, who’s clearly fine,” he snapped. “I’m just asking if something was wrong with Joe Biden.” But Roginsky refused to be pinned down. “Donald Trump is the President of the United States,” she stated defiantly, adding that she’d like to see another cognitive test from him—before again returning to well-worn anecdotes from the 1980s.
In one of the more surreal moments, Jennings brought levity into the fray by playing a clip of Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy laughing hysterically—an exasperated response to Roginsky’s repeated non-answers.
But behind the laughter was a serious issue: the credibility of presidential transparency. The Tapper-Thompson book suggests there were clear efforts to conceal Biden’s condition, and when asked to address that head-on, Roginsky’s only defense was to change the subject. Her unwillingness to engage raised the very questions she tried to sidestep.