By Harold Hutchison, Daily Caller News Foundation | May 22, 2025
Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich said Thursday the Biden White House’s press office “abused” reporters who questioned then-President Joe Biden’s condition.
The cover-up of Biden’s declining mental acuity by members of the White House staff during his term in office has received significant attention since President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, with one book, “Original Sin,” by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, reporting that Biden failed to recognize Academy Award-winning actor George Clooney at a fundraiser. Heinrich, who filled in for “America’s Newsroom” co-host Dana Perino, was asked how her questions about Biden’s capacity were received.
“Jacqui, when you are in the room asking the questions what kind of reception do you get from your colleagues? What happens afterwards with the staff of the White House? How does that work?” “America’s Newsroom” co-host Bill Hemmer asked Heinrich.
Fox News promoted Heinrich to senior White House correspondent in June 2024 after she was named a White House correspondent in August 2021 following a stint as congressional correspondent for the network.
“Well, you know, for about three years they would go like this: They don’t want to be associated,” Heinrich said, leaning away from Hemmer to demonstrate the reaction, prompting Hemmer to ask, “Who?”
“The rest of the press, because the White House was very effective in maligning anyone who was skeptical about the president’s age and abilities as a bad actor, as someone who is not a good journalist,” Heinrich said. “They abused us, too. I had people in the press office tell me I was not a good reporter because I was asking questions about these things with sourcing. It was the snap reaction a lot of the time rather than actually going to the people who I got the information from and having them confirm it. They would just like to shut down that discussion.”
The Wall Street Journal published multiple articles about Biden’s decreased mental acuity prior to Biden announcing the end of his reelection bid on July 21, 2024, but the pieces received pushback from some media outlets and Democrats despite having multiple sources.
Questions were raised about the White House’s truthfulness about Biden’s health and mental acuity during his term in office. On multiple occasions, Biden said he spoke with people who had died, including claiming to have spoken with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, and former French President Francois Mitterrand, who passed away in 1996 on two occasions in February 2024.
Biden also asked for Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana during a September 2022 White House event on hunger that took place several weeks after Walorski and two staffers were killed in a car accident while in her district.
Biden started using a different set of stairs onto the VC-25, a modified Boeing 747 used as Air Force One as a concession to his age in the later years of his administration following multiple instances where Biden apparently tripped on the steps of Air Force One. Biden also suffered falls during his term in office, including one at the Air Force Academy in June 2023, and another fall while on his bike in June 2022.
Harold Hutchison is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation
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