Wall Street Journal reporter Siobhan Hughes defends Joe Biden article amid blowback

Wall Street Journal reporter Siobhan Hughes doubled down on a story about President Biden’s mental acuity after receiving pushback from the White House.

News outlets The report was released Wednesday’s story, headlined “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Stalling,” detailed the president’s performance in the closed-door meeting. The report drew immediate criticism from White House officials and Democrats, many of whom pointed out that the story cited a number of Republicans.

Hughes, a congressional reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was one of two authors of the article. She said: “CNN News Central” The remarks were made when asked Wednesday what “signs of decline” mean for Biden.

“The portrait of the president that’s painted here is much the same behind closed doors as the president we see in public — a man who has good days and good moments, but also bad days and bad moments,” she said.

She also responded to criticism from Democrats that the article was biased because it included many quotes from Republicans, including former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who The Wall Street Journal reported said Biden was “not the same person” he was as vice president.

“So we’ve heard from administration officials that Mr. McCarthy did say that the president was astute in the meeting. Our reporting also suggests that he was doing it strategically because he had to stay on good terms with President Biden at a time when the country was really at risk of defaulting on its debt if some kind of deal wasn’t reached,” Hughes said.

“So how you take that is up to you. You can decide McCarthy is not credible or you can decide she is credible, but that’s what our reporting has shown,” she added.

She also encouraged people to read the article first before criticizing it.

“Democrats feel the article is biased. I would encourage people to stay away from this political story. Read the article, check the facts and make your own judgment before jumping to conclusions about motives and bias,” she said.