Former CNN and Washington Post political reporter Chris Cillizza was feeling contrite. In a Friday video, he suggested "As a reporter I have a confession to make. I should have pushed harder, earlier for more information about Joe Biden's mental and physical well-being and any signs of decline."

He explained he worked at CNN through 2022, and Republicans would regularly nudging him to ask more questions about Biden's mental fitness. "I would sort of brush them off because what I would say is 'well, there's no obvious evidence that he's declining. Yeah, he moves a little slower. He talks a little slower, but there's no evidence that he's declining.'"

Of course, the Biden White House "were absolutely adamant that suggesting anything, asking the question about whether he was in some physical mental or both decline was offensive. How could you?! It's age-shaming! And I think that impacted me at some level...I didn't really push on it if I'm being honest." He claimed he was tougher after he left CNN, which tells you something about CNN.

Cillizza read from this week's New York Times and Wall Street Journal stories on how Biden struggled. He admitted Biden didn't do a lot of press conferences or interviews -- clearly, he was being hidden. But he said Biden's somewhat screamy State of the Union speech this year was "fine," with "no obvious signs of decline." That's a matter of opinion.

So they did a good job of hiding it for a long time, but journalists, and I put myself here, you've got to, we should have been pushier, we should have, I should have, I don't want to speak for everyone. I should have not let the shame campaign to make you feel bad for asking the question get to me.

Because it's now clear from both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times piece that there was real deterioration even before -- and by the way all the reporting that we've seen since the June 27th debate -- it's not just these two stories -- that there was real and significant decline In Joe Biden and that it was being managed by the people around him. They were insulating him. They were keeping sort of the world, the political world out and keeping him sort of bunkered in. And that should have been something we knew more about.

He added that it was concerning that we've let him be president for six months after learning he's incapacitated on "bad days." But I think the media elites wanted to help Democrats keep whatever promise they made that he could serve out his term if he quit the campaign.

Naturally, Cillizza closed by suggesting President Trump should be pressed for more transparency about his health in his second term. That's a fair point -- not considering the media's horrible suppression of Biden's decline -- but does anyone doubt they'll be all over hints or gossip over this in the years to come?