A clip of CNN anchor Jake Tapper discussing the small circle that wielded extraordinary power inside Joe Biden’s White House is exploding across social media again today.
One crucial point belongs right at the top: the interview aired in May 2025. Tapper made the remarks while promoting Original Sin, the book he wrote with Axios reporter Alex Thompson.
What is new is the attention. The four-minute clip is suddenly reaching a much wider audience on X, where viewers are hearing Tapper describe a tightly controlled group of senior advisers that people inside the Biden administration reportedly called the “Politburo.”
Here is the clip now making the rounds:
WOAH 🚨 Lead Anchor at CNN Jake Tapper comes out and admits THEY ALL KNEW Joe Biden wasn’t really President and calling the shots
He says there was an elite inner circle of advisors who would make the decisions and “steer the country.” He gives the names of the people in that… pic.twitter.com/b3A0YotCBS
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 17, 2026
Tapper said the name did not originate with him or Thompson. According to their reporting, it came from people inside the administration who saw how much authority had become concentrated in a remarkably small circle.
He described those advisers as the people who helped “steer the government.” Tapper said Biden retained some agency, yet portrayed a presidency in which access, information, scheduling and the framing of major decisions were controlled by the same few loyalists.
That is a long way from the picture the White House sold to the public.
PBS NewsHour interviewed Tapper and Thompson on May 22, 2025, two days after their book was released. They said Biden’s inner circle restricted access to him during 2023 and 2024, including access sought by Cabinet secretaries, White House employees and Democratic officials.
Thompson said administration insiders—not the authors—used the “Politburo” label because the group controlled Biden’s time, who reached him and which decisions were placed in front of him. He said some Cabinet members feared consequential choices were being framed so tightly that the final decision was barely a choice at all.
Tapper also acknowledged that criticism of the press, including criticism directed at him, was valid. Thompson said many insiders did not become candid until after the 2024 election because they feared damaging Biden and helping President Trump.
The viral reaction today has focused heavily on that media reckoning:
JAKE TAPPER CONFIRMED IT — THE MEDIA KNEW BIDEN WASN'T IN CONTROL.
He said there was a group of advisors referred to as "the Politburo" that were the real decision-makers.
He also named the people in that group. pic.twitter.com/9OKkEuSB4X— Lisa 🇺🇸 (@LisaIsa196831) August 17, 2026
Penguin Random House describes Original Sin as an account built from private conversations with White House staff, Cabinet officials, congressional leaders, governors and donors. Its central argument is that Biden, his family and senior aides concealed the extent of his decline while insisting he could serve another four years.
The book was published on May 20, 2025. Tapper and Thompson said they interviewed more than 200 Democratic insiders.
Their reporting portrayed the June 2024 debate as the public exposure of a condition that had been managed behind closed doors.
The authors identified Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Bruce Reed and Ron Klain among the core advisers. They also described Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini as influential figures around the family and the operation that controlled access to Biden.
One same-day post pulled out Tapper’s description of that arrangement:
Jake Tapper “So the Politburo, not a term we came up with, it's a term from within the Biden administration, as the name would suggest is a tightly held group of senior advisors — these were the individuals that help steer the government.”@SocialSitrep https://t.co/7UUz8ddHOi
— Mikhail Moriarti (@mikhailmoriarti) August 17, 2026
The allegations did not end with the book tour.
The House Oversight Committee released a Republican staff report in October 2025 after interviewing former Biden aides, including Donilon, Ricchetti, Reed, Klain, Bernal and Tomasini. The committee alleged that senior officials concealed Biden’s decline through restricted access, scripted appearances and tightly managed scheduling.
The report also raised separate questions about the process used to authorize presidential actions and the use of the autopen. Those were committee findings, not a criminal judgment, and several former Biden officials disputed the broader accusation that Biden was unable to perform his duties.
A Biden spokesperson gave PBS the administration’s answer when the original book was released: the reporting did not prove Biden failed to do his job, endangered national security or was disengaged from major presidential decisions.
That defense does not erase the account Tapper and Thompson put on camera.
Their reporting described an aging president shielded from members of his own government while a handful of unelected advisers controlled the pathways through which information and decisions reached him. Even Tapper’s own caveat—that Biden retained some agency—does not make that structure less alarming.
The interview happened in 2025. The public reaction surging today is new.
And for millions of Americans now hearing the word “Politburo” for the first time, the obvious question remains unanswered: how was that arrangement allowed to operate for so long without full public scrutiny?
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
