Terry Moran Says ABC News Blocked His Attempt to Report on Biden’s Declining Health

Former ABC News correspondent Terry Moran says he tried to report on then-President Joe Biden’s declining health in late 2023 or early 2024, but was quickly shut down by network leadership.

Moran, speaking on The Daily Beast podcast, said he first noticed signs of frailty while traveling with Biden to Japan in the spring of 2023. “I had actually traveled with him to Japan in the spring of 2023 and kind of eyeballed him there, and I thought, ‘Okay, he’s still functioning, but man, he’s frail.’ He looked like he’d blow away in a stiff wind,” Moran said. He added that by Biden’s final year in office, the president’s voice had become a “whisper.”

“I tried to do the story of Biden’s health before anybody else did in network, because I’d seen it,” Moran said. “And I got shut down very hard.”

Moran said he pitched the story to his editors carefully, framing it as a legitimate matter of public interest rather than a medical diagnosis. “It was like, ‘You know, this is [a] legit issue for Americans to be interested in,'” he said. “I’m not a doctor. I’m not diagnosing. But we all know what we know when we see people fading. We all have had grandparents. We’re all getting old ourselves. And so there’s no doubt about it, this is a legitimate concern for the voters of America.”

According to Moran, ABC News leadership rejected the pitch, telling him Biden’s health was “the medical unit’s business, not yours.” Fox News Digital said it reached out to ABC News for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Moran’s exit from ABC

Moran left ABC News after a social media post in which he called President Donald Trump and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller “world-class haters.” The post was later deleted. “We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew,” an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital at the time.

Renewed scrutiny of Biden’s decline

Questions about Biden’s health and mental acuity have drawn fresh attention since he left office, including through books and reports alleging aides concealed the extent of his decline. CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson co-authored “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” a book based on more than 200 interviews that argues Biden’s inner circle hid signs of decline from the public.

Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert told Fox News Digital that Moran’s attempt to report on the issue reflected basic journalistic practice. “Moran was doing exactly what reporters are paid to do: he noticed something and wanted to ask questions about it,” Alpert said. “You don’t have to diagnose Biden to report that he appeared different. We make observations about people every day without knowing the medical explanation for them. Saying ‘I see a change’ and saying ‘I know what’s causing that change’ are completely different statements.”

Alpert added that avoiding uncomfortable information is a common institutional response. “It’s also a very human tendency to avoid information that creates a problem for us,” he said. “Sometimes it’s easier not to look too closely and that seems to be exactly what ABC was doing.”

“I think what ultimately hurts credibility is the gap between what the public thinks is obvious and what an institution is willing to acknowledge,” Alpert said. “The wider that gap gets, the more people start wondering whether they’re getting the whole story. A journalist’s job is to be willing to ask the questions, even without knowing all the answers.”