Jake Tapper pulled no punches, calling Trump an embarrassment and ripping Sean Spicer’s attempt to justify his boss’s lies.
CNN host Jake Tapper ripped into Trump’s efforts to defend his wire-tapping accusation Friday night, calling them an “embarrassment” and ripped White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s “desperate attempt to justify his boss’s false claim that President Obama had tapped his phone in Trump Tower” by citing “a sketchy report by a conservative pundit, one making a very serious accusation against the most important ally,” the United Kingdom.
Trump tried to defend Spicer’s claim during a Friday joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, telling reporters that “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. And so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox, okay?”
Tapper tore into Trump’s remarks, stating: “The White House, apparently unaware that when the White House in the world’s most powerful nation cites a news story as proof of what the president of the United States has said that that tends to suggest to people that you think you believe the story you’re citing as proof.”
Continuing, Tapper stated “But now in a fevered effort to try and force this outlandish claim into something remotely resembling — passably, perhaps, maybe the truth, the White House appears actually willing to repeat another wild accusation that could potentially alienate our nation’s most important ally.”
Not yet finished with Trump, Tapper asked a series of questions that is on the minds of many: “Does smearing British intelligence make your family more safe? No? So, why is the White House doing it? What is the White House defending here?” concluding: “Because it damn sure isn’t national security or American credibility before the world.”
Esquire succinctly summarized the monologue as follows:
These are transformative times for Jake Tapper. Once seemingly seduced by the both-siderist hellscape of Beltway punditry, Tapper has undergone a reinvention in recent months, speaking hard truths to powerful people. That came to a head today with his segment following the joint press conference between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which surely must have had any German viewers who tuned in thinking someone slipped mescaline in their Weihenstephaner.
You can watch Jake Tapper in action, below:
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