{"id":60356,"date":"2025-12-04T02:41:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/60356\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T02:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:41:19","slug":"scott-bessent-blasts-ny-times-over-coverage-of-bidens-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/60356\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Bessent blasts NY Times over coverage of Biden’s decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Bessent tore into the New York Times at the paper\u2019s own media conference on Wednesday \u2014 accusing it of pushing distorted coverage of President Trump\u2019s health while downplaying its own failures to scrutinize former President Joe Biden\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n

In a tense onstage exchange at the paper\u2019s Dealbook Summit in New York City, Bessent warned Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin that the paper was drifting toward irrelevance and had become a \u201cfever swamp,\u201d insisting he no longer reads the Times himself.<\/p>\n

Scott Bessent tore into the New York Times at its own Dealbook Summit on Wednesday. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, in 20, 30, 40, 50 years,\u00a0the New York Times\u00a0is no longer the paper of record,\u201d Bessent predicted in comments reported by Mediaite.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Treasury secretary cited a Times report last week that claimed that Trump, 79 was starting to show his age<\/a>: shorter public days, later starts, and moments in which he appeared fatigued during meetings.<\/p>\n

The Treasury chief told moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin that Times articles forwarded to him proved the outlet had become, in his words, a \u201cfever swamp,\u201d insisting he no longer reads the paper himself. Getty Images for The New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cI read this article, like \u2018President Trump is slowing down. President Trump\u2019s mental capacity \u2013\u2019 It is a hundred percent fake. Like he only called me twice at 2 in the morning last week instead of three times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Times story, Trump holds far fewer public events than he did during the first year of his first term and travels domestically at a slower pace, even as he increases foreign trips.<\/p>\n

The article also cited instances in which the president\u2019s eyes drooped during midday meetings, and recounted questions surrounding recent medical procedures he disclosed without detail.<\/p>\n

In a tense onstage exchange, Bessent warned that the Times was drifting toward irrelevance. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

In response, Bessent highlighted a lengthy cCabinet meeting as evidence the president was fully engaged as he faulted the paper for ignoring the pace of official work.<\/p>\n

Bessent went on to accuse the Times of contributing to what he called \u201cone of the greatest scandals of all time\u201d through its \u201ccoverage of the Biden administration, Joe Biden\u2019s diminished capacity, and the cover-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sorkin pushed back, arguing that concerns about Biden\u2019s coverage meant it was \u201cprobably fair to raise these questions\u201d about Trump\u2019s condition as well.<\/p>\n

A recent Times report said President Trump, now 79, was showing the realities of age: shorter public days, later starts, and moments in which he appeared fatigued during meetings. Al Drago\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Bessent rejected that argument, saying the paper had ignored Trump\u2019s pace of work to manufacture narratives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere was the New York Times? We just had a three-hour cabinet meeting yesterday, Andrew!\u201d he said, before asserting that Biden rarely convened his own cabinet and asking how \u201cyou\u2019re going to invoke the 25th Amendment if the cabinet secretaries never see the president?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times\u2019 most recent quarterly earnings show the publisher now counts more than 12 million subscribers, almost all of them digital.<\/p>\n

Bessent escalated his criticism by accusing the Times of contributing to what he described as \u201cone of the greatest scandals of all time\u201d through its \u201ccoverage of the Biden administration, Joe Biden\u2019s diminished capacity, and the cover-up.\u201d REUTERS<\/p>\n

The company added nearly half a million digital-only subscribers in the latest quarter, lifted revenue nearly 10% and posted double-digit profit growth.<\/p>\n

Its stock trades near a 52-week high, and analysts peg its valuation north of $10 billion.<\/p>\n

The Post has sought comment from the Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Bessent tore into the New York Times at the paper\u2019s own media conference on Wednesday \u2014 accusing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,153,874,1208,9,11,10,980,16371],"class_list":{"0":"post-60356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-joe-biden","11":"tag-media","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-times","16":"tag-scott-bessent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}