Brian Stelter questions timing of Biden's cancer announcement, links it to release of Robert Hur tapes

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Things got extra interesting on CNN this weekend when analyst Brian Stelter questioned the timing of Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis revelation. 

With establishment Democrats already knee-deep in damage control over Biden’s cognitive health, Stelter said what many were probably thinking.

“The timing … is just extraordinary,” Stelter said on-air on Sunday, May 18. “We know from the statement from his personal spokesman that Biden learned of the diagnosis on Friday."

He noted that audio clips from Biden’s 2023 sit-down with former special counsel Robert Hur — in which the former president meandered through basic questions and repeatedly lost his train of thought — also dropped on Friday, the New York Post reported.

“Well, what was the biggest Biden story on Friday?” Stelter added. “It was the release of those audio excerpts from his conversations with [former special counsel] Robert Hur back in 2023.”

Brian Stelter links release of Robert Hur interview audio to Joe Biden's cancer announcement

The audio excerpts — published by Axios — feature Joe Biden stumbling over key memories, including when his own son Beau Biden died, and fumbling facts like the year Donald Trump first won the presidency and when his vice presidency ended.

The audio isn’t new in content — the transcripts had already been made public last year — but hearing Biden’s halting delivery in real-time has been setting off new alarm bells. The interview originally took place in October 2023 during the special counsel’s probe into Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. 

Hur decided against charging the 46th president for mishandling classified documents. In his final report, he said jurors would likely view Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Biden’s administration had long resisted releasing the audio, arguing it didn’t reveal anything that wasn’t already in the transcripts. Still, the timing of its release, just before the cancer announcement, had Stelter asking serious questions. 

“On the day that story was breaking, Biden was facing this personal news,” Stelter said. “So you have that as one element of the timing here.”

David Axelrod says talk of Joe Biden's decline should be set aside for now

As if Joe Biden’s week wasn’t already overwhelming, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson's much-anticipated book 'Original Sin', a political tell-all that had already been sending aftershocks through the Democratic Party, is set to release on May 20.  

Stelter wasn’t shy about pointing out the timing again. “And then you have… this book coming out, one of the biggest political books in several years,” he noted.

The book — excerpts of which hit the press last week — reportedly outlines disturbing claims about Biden’s mental and physical decline, along with alleged attempts by aides to keep the full picture hidden. It has reopened a rather raw wound among Democrats about whether Biden’s inner circle covered up his condition during his reelection run that eventually fizzled.

Now with a cancer diagnosis, some Democrats are trying to hit pause on the cognitive health talks. David Axelrod, a longtime Democratic strategist, said on CNN that talk of Biden’s mental decline “should be more muted and set aside for now as he’s struggling through this.”

Earlier that day, however, Axelrod joined a panel that slammed Democrats for fumbling the handling of Biden’s clear signs of decline.

Joe Biden confirms diagnosis saying 'cancer touches us all'

Early Monday morning, Joe Biden went public and confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support,” the 82-year-old wrote.

According to the CDC, about 70% of prostate cancers are caught before they spread. Biden’s case, though, appears more serious. His office said Sunday, “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management.”

Still, some medical experts aren’t buying the suddenness of the diagnosis, saying it’s “inconceivable” that the cancer wasn’t detected earlier. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr suggested the whole thing smelled of a “cover-up,” sharing a post on the topic from Dr Steven Quay, CEO of Atossa Therapeutics. 

It's worth noting that Stelter himself hasn’t exactly been friendly to conservative media’s critiques of Biden in the past. During the 2024 campaign, he was among the louder voices at CNN dismissing concerns about Biden’s mental fitness, even labeling some of the coverage as “cheap fakes.”