Reporter Alex Thompson did not grill Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on his defense of former President Joe Biden’s mental competence during a Friday interview on “The Axios Show.”
Thompson and CNN host Jake Tapper co-authored the 2025 book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” on the major cover-up of the former president’s unfitness for office. In the Thursday interview for Axios, Thompson asked about CNN reporting that Newsom and Biden have been speaking by phone recently. Newsom avoided any specifics on their conversations, but quickly emphasized his devotion to the former president.
“I was so loyal to the end, and I happily will take the arrows on that and defend that,” said Newsom in a preemptive defense of past comments praising and defending Biden against reports of his decline, which Newsom at one point called “idle chatter” and “mishegoss” that he blamed on the Fox News “anger machine.”
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“Are you talking to him about foreign policy, current events? What are you talking about?” Thompson asked.
“Last time I talked to him, without breaking trust, he was, again, very appreciative of some of the work we were trying to do, fight fire with fire. But I was talking to him about, he’s almost at the end of writing his memoir and book and how he’s spending the day,” Newsom said. “And to be candid with you, it’s just, frankly, I was just checking in on his health. ‘How you doing?’”
Biden’s personal office announced he was diagnosed with prostate cancer on May 18.
Thompson then seemed to open the door to the topic of the cover-up when he asked whether “that Biden that you’re talking to” would be “capable of being president today,” but despite a vague answer from Newsom, there was no follow-up from Thompson in the video from Axios. The interview cut to the next segment and topic without any mention of Newsom’s past defense of Biden’s abilities.
Newsom claimed on “This Is Gavin Newsom” in April 2025 that he only observed Biden’s diminished mental acuity a single time prior to his disastrous June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump.
“I, of course, never experienced any of that, quite literally. So, I would have been lying if I played to that, except one event … and that’s the fundraiser — the infamous George Clooney fundraiser — where it was clear, and that, for me, jet lag was as easy a way to describe that as anything else,” Newsom said. “But it was clear that something was a little bit off or different.”
Newsom also repeatedly said in October that he was “proud” to back Biden, even after witnessing him at the fundraiser and debate.
“I was proud to be one of the last people standing … I’m proud of the fact that I stood up for him,” he said. “And I’m proud of the fact that he was our president … I was proud to go out there and support him.
“I’m just not someone who’s going to turn my back on someone … I just believe, again, you go home with the one who brought you to the dance,” he added.
In addition to the fundraiser and debate, Biden publicly appeared to call on the late Republican Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski to stand up in September 2022, seeming to forget she had perished in a car crash the month prior. Several clips of Biden also amassed attention in June 2024 for underscoring his diminished fitness and increased gaffes, which included freezing and wandering off.
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