Liberal media figures confess to being in denial about Biden's cognitive decline.

Influential media figures were asked to reflect on their mistakes in predicting President Biden's mental acuity in 2024, and several admitted to having made a mistake.

Max Tani of Semafor wrote that Joe Biden's failure on the debate stage and subsequent decision to leave the presidential race were the most consequential news events of 2024, according to many of their respondents.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, numerous media commentators and pundits defended Biden against accusations of mental decline, even after Special Counsel Robert Hur's report revealed his forgetfulness, viral videos showed him appearing confused, and a Wall Street Journal report detailed his struggling demeanor behind the scenes.

Despite pledging to stay in the race, Biden quit after his poor debate performance against Trump in June, which led to increased pressure to drop out.

Several high-profile media figures admitted to Semafor that their worst predictions about 2024 were based on the assumption that Biden still had his fastball.

Medhi Hasan

Initially, the former MSNBC host dismissed Republicans' claims about Biden's mental decline before the infamous debate.

Hasan admitted that he posted his wrongest ever tweet in 2024.

A few hours after his initial promise to "beat Medicare," he had dropped out of the race a few weeks later, as he recounted to Semafor.

He stated, "As many others, I was completely, utterly, totally, embarrassingly wrong about Biden's lack of mental competence. However, I remain right about Trump's."

Tim Miller

According to Miller, who spoke to Semafor, he believes that he was too generous in his assessment of President Biden during most of his term, and as a result, both his image and the protection of democratic institutions will suffer.

Brian Lehrer

Brian Lehrer, the host of "The Brian Lehrer Show," acknowledged his mistake regarding Biden's mental decline.

I initially dismissed criticism that Joe Biden was not fit to run for re-election as ageism, but after watching the debate, I realized there was more to it.

Matt Yglesias

Matt Yglesias, a progressive journalist and blogger, admitted that he was incorrect about one of the major issues of the year.

Semafor spoke with Yglesias, who believed that Joe Biden would disprove his critics during the significant debate.

"Despite the widespread belief that the media was involved in a massive coverup following the humiliation, many of us, including members of his team, genuinely believed the situation was better than it actually was."

He continued, "It's more embarrassing to be gullible and wrong when many people without sources or inside information could see it clearly, but that's what happened - I was wrong about one of the big questions of the year."

Josh Barro

According to Barro, the author of "Very Serious," the "most significant error I made was overestimating President Biden's decline."

"He was taken aback by the president's performance in the June 27th debate, but he shouldn't have been surprised because he had overestimated his ability to perform well in unscripted settings. He had been impressed by the president's scripted performances, such as the State of the Union, and assumed that his avoidance of unscripted settings was a deliberate effort to maintain his message. However, he later realized that the president was not capable of engaging in unscripted settings in the way he used to."

"I misread the signs because I believed Biden's decision to agree to an early debate was a sign of confidence in his ability to perform well in one. However, after 2024, I have developed contempt for the president and those around him, who engaged in elder abuse, and also feel embarrassed for not seeing through their deception earlier."