It was a funny thing to see so many of Obama-era figures on TV Sunday and Monday as the condition of former President Joe Biden was discussed.
Biden, as you doubtlessly know by now, has Stage 4 prostate cancer, a cancer notorious for its slow spread and general ease of detection through blood tests. This raised questions, and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel — an oncologist and one of the architects of Obamacare, in addition to being an adviser to President Biden — noted on MSNBC that “he’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading” and that Biden “did not develop it in the last 100, 200 days. He had it while he was president.”
However, I was put more into mind of a different Emanuel — this one Ezekiel’s brother Rahm, the former chief of staff for President Obama who would go on to become mayor of Chicago — who was famous for a quote that summed up his bloodless cynicism: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
This is actually somewhat of a “play it again, Sam” misquote; the actual line regarding what he said in regards to the 2008 financial meltdown was, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Different words, same basic ethos: When life hands you lemons, squeeze them in your enemies’ eyes and do what you can while they’re doubled over.
Which brings us to another former Obama-era official, adviser David Axelrod, now an unfortunately common presence in airport terminals thanks to his role as a seemingly ubiquitous (and occasionally, if not often, sane) CNN analyst. Of course he was dragged out on Sunday night to give his immediate impression of Biden’s cancer diagnosis, and of course, his message was, be nice to poor old Joe.
Now, one feels all the sympathy in the world for anyone diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer who isn’t, say, a serial rapist. However, for those of you reading this 20 years in the future, let me give you the backdrop of what the announcement of this cancer diagnosis comes amid:
On Friday, the audio of then-President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur regarding his retention of classified documents was released. While shedding no new light on whether or not Biden should have been charged or not, they shed plenty of light on whether he should have been president: No, in 72-point bold italicized font. In addition to the numerous simple errors about the timeline of events that we knew about from the transcript of the interview that had already been released, the slurred speech and pauses in the audio made it clear that this was a man even more diminished cognitively than what we saw in the June 2024 debate that ended his candidacy.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, the book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson is set to be released. While the contents are basically in the title and the title doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know, the tome has been hyped as the most thorough insider examination of how deep, thorough, and reprehensible the subterfuge was. Excerpts have not disappointed, although it raises questions as to why these questions weren’t raised while Biden was president by Tapper, at the very least.
Is the timing of Biden’s diagnosis suspicious?
Enter Axelrod on Sunday evening, telling CNN’s audience that any talk of Biden’s cognitive decline needs to be “more muted and set aside for now” during what was set to be the worst week of his post-presidency yet.
“As you guys pointed out, Jake and Alex’s book just came out. It’s getting a lot of attention, a lot of reflection on his decision to run again, and the rehashing of all of that can’t be pleasant for him. But, this supersedes all of that, obviously,” he said at the top of the interview, according to Fox News.
Perfect cue-up for anchor Fredricka Whitfield to ask this: “This comes at a time when there is so much continued attention placed on his mental acuity and stability, as well as ahead of this book release, and you mentioned there’s been a lot of discussion about it. His medical condition now — his announced medical condition now — do you believe that silences or delays a lot of conversations about his last year and a half of his presidency, for now?”
“I think those conversations are going to happen, but they should be more muted and set aside for now, as he’s struggling through this,” Axelrod said.
🚨CNN tees up David Axelrod to say that conversations about Biden’s cognitive issues “should be more muted and set aside for now as he’s struggling through this.”
Here we go. pic.twitter.com/fteQnPeGIk
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 19, 2025
Never let a good Stage 4 cancer diagnosis go to waste.
Just a reminder, this is 5 p.m. Eastern, shortly after the diagnosis was announced. Spin mode was already in full effect. Let’s set aside all the nasty talk about how Biden’s medical condition was hidden from us because of Biden’s other medical condition, which absolutely wasn’t hidden from us. Right.
I’ve used this line before, I’ll keep using it: The Bidens get our prayers; they do not get a pass. It’s perfectly legitimate for us to say that this is horrible for them while also noting we’re learning the horrible mistruths they perpetrated on the American people and the ostracism heaped on any journalist who tried to do their job in covering it before the debate debacle.
Anyone remember how the White House was calling videos of Biden appearing senile “cheap fakes,” and how the media was echoing it? That wasn’t 2021; that was days before the debate. The debate where his candidacy effectively ended. And we’re supposed to back off because of their spin on a cancer diagnosis that, while tragic, doesn’t comport with the known facts of the disease’s progression?
Give us a break, David. Far from muting the discussion, it ought to amplify it.
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