Tapper, Biden, Trump, and the Dean Scream
How Media Selectivity Warps Our Understanding of Mental Fitness.
For those old enough to remember, the infamous "Dean Scream" became a defining moment of political self-immolation, or so we were told. Back in 2004, Howard Dean, then a leading Democratic contender, let out an enthusiastic "YEAHHH!" during his concession speech following the Iowa caucus. A single human moment, exuberant and maybe slightly off-pitch. But within four days, that scream had been played 633 times on national news outlets.
The result? A frenzy of commentary branding him unpresidential, unhinged, and unfit. Dean’s scream became the media’s fixation, and the repetition did the rest. The narrative solidified: Howard Dean lacked the temperament to be commander in chief. And just like that, the momentum behind his campaign collapsed.
That scream happened just 21 years ago.
Since then, we’ve gone from a moment of loud enthusiasm being disqualifying... to apparently being fine with cozying up to dictators, threatening democracy, and accepting private jets worth $400 million from billionaires. Standards, it seems, are flexible, depending on the narrative those in power want told.
And that’s really my point. Howard Dean’s scream should never have ended his candidacy. But it did, and not because of voters, but because the media class, and those who pull its strings, made a decision. And once the narrative was set, it echoed across the airwaves. Talking heads fell in line. Editorial boards nodded. Voters, lacking an alternate lens, absorbed what they were told.
We are all, in some ways, wired to mirror each other. That mirroring effect is easily hijacked by repetition and selective framing. The Dean Scream was a glaring, early example of this. But the game hasn’t changed, and in fact, it’s just gotten more sophisticated.
Yes, very much like the movie Network.
Which brings us to the the 2024 debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Biden had a cold. He stumbled. He lost his train of thought. His performance was rough, no question. But within minutes, the narrative was locked: Biden is unfit.
But what if the media had framed it differently? What if the story had been: Biden, an elderly president with a cold and some senior moments, still fundamentally competent and lucid — a man who had governed through pandemic, recession, war, and emerged with real policy wins? Because that’s also true.
Let’s be clear: Biden said he would only serve one term. He should have stepped aside. But it’s also true that he continued to hold campaign events and press conferences both before and after that debate. He still had his share of gaffes, as he always ha, but nothing as extreme as what happened that one night in June. Yet that one night became everything, because the narrative took off faster than a conspiracy theory on Fox News during a slow news cycle.
Now, Jake Tapper of CNN has a new book out — Original Sin — about Biden’s alleged mental decline, reportedly covered up by aides. Whether that’s fair or not, it fits perfectly into the now-accepted storyline. Meanwhile, I hear virtually nothing in mainstream media about Trump’s own cognitive disintegration.
Sure, it comes up in progressive podcasts or on the fringes of alternative media. But the national narrative? Strangely quiet.
This is despite the fact that Biden, for all his stumbles, oversaw a return from COVID-era economic collapse, enacted significant student loan reforms (even as the Supreme Court intervened), passed the CHIPS Act to bring back semiconductor manufacturing, and governed with arguably more legislative progressivism than any president since FDR.
And Trump?
There’s a very long list of Trump quotes that suggest, at best, ignorance, and at worst, serious mental decline. So long, in fact, I can’t cover them all in one post. But I’ll highlight some of my personal favorites below.
Donald Trump’s Most Incoherent or Nonsensical Quotes (2017–2024)
📅 October 21, 2024 – Rally in Latrobe, PA
Quote: “This is a guy that was all man… when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there – they said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable.’”
📅 August 29, 2024 – Rally in Potterville, MI
Quote: “Andrew Jackson they say was treated worse than any other president… And I said, ‘Do that study again,’ because I think there’s nobody close to Trump… I even got shot! And who the hell knows where that came from.”
📅 August 17, 2024 – Campaign Rally
Topic: Defensive Rambling
Quote: “They’ll say, ‘He was rambling.’ I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy, you know, really smart. I don’t ramble.”
📅 January 19, 2024 – Rally in Concord, New Hampshire
“By the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley… Did you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything? Deleted and destroyed all of it… Like, Nikki Haley was in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard – whatever they want. They turned it down.”
📅 October 23, 2023 – Campaign speech in Derry, New Hampshire
“There’s a man, Viktor Orbán, did anyone ever hear of him? … He’s probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He’s the leader of Turkey.”
📅 September 23, 2022 – Rally in Wilmington, North Carolina
“We have to keep our country gay, … but it’s not, I mean, for some reason, it’s not great anymore.”
📅 September 15, 2020 – ABC Town Hall, Philadelphia
Topic: COVID-19
Quote: “You’ll develop herd – like a herd mentality. It’s going to be herd-developed.”
📅 August 4, 2020 – White House signing ceremony for the Great American Outdoors Act
“…when their eyes widen in amazement as Old Faithful bursts into the sky, when they gaze upon Yo-Semites, Yo-Semites, towering sequoias, their love of country grows stronger…”
📅 April 2, 2019 – GOP Dinner
Quote: “They say the noise [from windmills] causes cancer.”
📅 April 23, 2020 – White House COVID Briefing
Quote: “Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection [of disinfectant] inside or almost a cleaning? It gets in the lungs… it’d be interesting to check that.”
📅 July 10, 2019 – Kidney health roundtable, Washington D.C.
“You’ve worked so hard on the kidney. Very special. The kidney has a very special place in the heart. It’s an incredible thing.”
📅 July 4, 2019 – Independence Day “Salute to America” speech, Washington D.C.
“Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory.”
📅 July 4, 2019 – “Salute to America” Speech
Topic: American History
Quote: “In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York, and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief. The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware, and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports.”
📅 April 2, 2019 – Press meeting at the White House with NATO Secretary General
“I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges – the oranges of the investigation, the beginnings of that investigation.”
📅 March 6, 2019 – Workforce Advisory Board meeting, White House
“You’ve really put a big investment in our country. We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple.”
📅 September 18, 2018 – Video statement on Hurricane Florence
“This is a tough hurricane – one of the wettest we’ve ever seen, from the standpoint of water.”
📅 May 31, 2017 – Twitter
Quote: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
📅 October 13, 2017 – Values Voter Summit, Washington D.C.
“I met with the President of the Virgin Islands.”
📅 February 1, 2017 – Black History Month event, White House
“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.”
Not Just Quotes — Whole Speeches Went Off the Rails
Trump's incoherence was often more than a soundbite. Here are just a few public appearances where he rambled, digressed, and contradicted himself over the course of entire events:
Feb 16, 2017 – First Solo Press Conference: A 77-minute, unscripted press conference that descended into media attacks and contradictory statements. He said “I’m not ranting,” while ranting.
Aug 22, 2017 – Phoenix Rally: A post-Charlottesville rally that became a 75-minute grievance monologue. Even his supporters began leaving early.
March 2, 2019 – CPAC Speech: A two-hour spectacle with flag-hugging, profanity, and cartoonish insults — deemed one of the most bizarre addresses of his presidency.
April 23, 2020 – COVID Briefing: A moment now infamous for Trump’s suggestion that UV light or disinfectant could be used inside the body. His scientific advisors looked visibly alarmed.
June 20, 2020 – “Rampgate” Rally: Trump obsessively explained his slow descent down a West Point ramp and spent nearly 15 minutes proving he could drink water with one hand.
Nov 1, 2024 – Milwaukee Rally: After a mic issue, Trump launched into a profanity-laced rant and mimed a lewd sex act with the microphone stand on stage. Even the crowd seemed uncomfortable.
These weren’t isolated moments. They were public, repeated, and often nationally televised. And they weren’t treated as campaign-ending — or even seriously disqualifying.
That contrast is the story.
The Dean Scream, Biden’s Gaffes, and the Trump Exception
Selective narratives around presidential fitness reveal stark inconsistencies in media portrayal. Take the "Dean Scream" from 2004: Howard Dean’s enthusiastic shout, an entirely harmless, if slightly awkward, moment, was relentlessly magnified by media outlets into evidence of unfitness for office, effectively terminating his campaign. This illustrates vividly how swiftly a media narrative can crystallize and influence public perception.
Joe Biden faces similar intense scrutiny. Every slip of the tongue, brief moment of confusion, or stumble is quickly framed by mainstream and conservative media alike as indicative of severe cognitive decline. Biden’s age and minor errors are persistently amplified, shaping a narrative questioning his competence despite ongoing policy achievements and steady leadership.
Yet, remarkably, this rigorous standard dissolves when applied to Donald Trump. Trump's public behavior includes numerous troubling and incoherent moments, suggesting disinfectants as COVID treatments, misidentifying historical facts, engaging in erratic and confused speechmaking, yet these incidents rarely gain sustained mainstream attention. Trump benefits from a collective silence or minimization of his evident cognitive lapses, a treatment starkly different from Biden’s or Dean’s.
The reasons behind this inconsistency are telling:
Conservative media vigorously defends Trump, dismissing his behavior as minor quirks or intentional provocations rather than signs of mental deterioration.
Mainstream outlets, wary of appearing biased, apply cautious and diluted scrutiny to Trump’s evident issues, reinforcing a false sense of equivalence.
Republican politicians, privately concerned but publicly silent, strategically avoid confronting Trump's obvious issues to preserve political alliances and electoral prospects.
This selective amplification is no accident. Howard Dean’s single scream dismantled his campaign. Joe Biden endures relentless questioning of his mental capacity for relatively common errors. Trump, however, benefits from a strikingly lenient narrative.
Understanding this selective storytelling and identifying its sources is crucial. Recognizing these disparities enables critical resistance to being passively shaped by intentional media programming.
Who Gets to Define "Presidential"?
The story of the Dean Scream wasn’t just about one man’s career imploding over a silly moment. It was about the immense power of narrative, who controls it, how it spreads, and what it buries. Today, that same machinery is at work, but with even higher stakes.
The fact that Biden is pilloried for senior moments while Trump is given a pass for dangerous incoherence is not a reflection of reality, but of the stories those in power want to tell. These are not random editorial choices; they are part of a system of narrative gatekeeping, one that punishes vulnerability in some and excuses recklessness in others.
If a scream can end a campaign, but a deluge of delusions can't even shift the conversation, we must ask: How did we slide this far? And what should we actually expect from our leaders? And more urgently, what do we expect from those who shape how we see them?
Until we demand consistency, we’ll keep mistaking propaganda for journalism and performance for leadership. The question isn’t whether presidents stumble. It’s whether we’re willing to see it, regardless of which team they play for.
Sources
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2004/01/24/howard-deans-defining-moment/f370c180-f6f7-42e0-b882-b74096268b4f
Washington Post analysis of Howard Dean’s campaign and media fallout after the “Dean Scream.”https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/us/politics/biden-trump-debate-performance.html
New York Times coverage of the 2024 Biden-Trump debate and media reaction.https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/jake-tapper-book-original-sin-biden/index.html
CNN report on Jake Tapper’s book “Original Sin” and its claims about Biden’s cognitive state.https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/24/trump-disinfectant-coronavirus-207671
Politico on Trump’s April 2020 comments about disinfectant and COVID-19 treatment.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-viktor-orban-turkey-hungary-b2430944.html
Coverage of Trump incorrectly identifying Viktor Orbán as the leader of Turkey.https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/15/an-annotated-guide-trumps-rampgate-rant/
An annotated breakdown of Trump’s “Rampgate” rally speech.https://www.factcheck.org/2020/07/trumps-mount-rushmore-speech-and-the-airports/
FactCheck.org on Trump’s false historical claim about the Continental Army seizing airports.https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rambling-rallies-media-coverage-2024-1234948872/
Rolling Stone article cataloging Trump’s recent rally incoherence and media response.https://www.npr.org/2020/08/26/906469326/a-look-back-at-the-cpac-speech-where-trump-hugged-the-flag
NPR on Trump’s 2019 CPAC speech, considered one of his most unhinged public performances.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/23/trump-coronavirus-disinfectant-comments
The Guardian coverage of public and medical community reactions to Trump’s COVID remarks.