During a year-end panel discussion, CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford admitted that media outlets failed to adequately report on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.

Crawford described the issue as “underreported,” citing a pivotal moment during the presidential debate earlier in the year.

“Under-covered and underreported? That to me would be Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised presidential debate,” Crawford said.

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She pointed specifically to Biden’s poor performance in a June debate as evidence.

Biden’s interactions with the press have long been a point of contention.

Throughout his presidency, he rarely held unscripted press conferences or engaged spontaneously with reporters.

Often, his public remarks were criticized as incoherent.

Despite mounting concerns, mainstream media outlets largely dismissed these incidents, often attributing them to conservative exaggerations or social media manipulation.

Crawford highlighted how some outlets, including her own CBS News, downplayed troubling evidence of Biden’s struggles.

This included a widely circulated video showing former President Barack Obama assisting Biden off a stage. At the time, media organizations claimed such footage was altered or fabricated.

“In the weeks leading up to the debate, CBS News and other outlets claimed that video evidence of Biden’s decline — including a troubling incident where he had to be assisted off a stage by former President Barack Obama — were digitally altered,” Crawford explained.

Media labeled these videos as “cheap fakes,” citing claims from Biden aides and advisors that the president was in good health.

Now, Crawford is calling out the lack of scrutiny and transparency surrounding Biden’s mental fitness.

She noted reports from The Wall Street Journal detailing how Biden’s advisors carefully managed his public appearances to account for his limitations.

“And you know, it’s starting to emerge now that his advisors kind of managed his limitations, which has been reported in The Wall Street Journal, for four years, and yet he insisted that he could still run for president,” Crawford said.

The CBS correspondent also acknowledged that media hesitancy to question Biden’s fitness could have altered the political landscape.

“We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats. It could have changed the scope of the entire election. Yet still, incredibly, we read in The Washington Post that his advisors are saying that he regrets that he dropped out of the race. You know that he thinks he could have beaten Trump and I think that is either delusional or they’re gaslighting,” Crawford concluded.

Crawford’s comments mark a rare instance of a mainstream media figure openly criticizing the journalistic approach to covering Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, suggesting that the topic should have been more thoroughly examined during his presidency.