CNN’s Tapper: The American People Don’t Know How Close We Came to ‘Complete Anarchy’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Thursday on his show “The Lead” that he didn’t think the American people had “an idea how close we came to complete anarchy and potentially a complete erosion of democracy” in the days after the 2020 election.

Tapper said, “I don’t think the American people truly have an idea how close we came to complete anarchy and potentially a complete erosion of democracy. In the days before January 6 you are worrying, as are many Republicans and many in the media, about whether Vice President Mike Pence is going to try to stop the certification of the election results. And the truth is even though Mike Pence did a heroic thing and did the right thing at the end of the day, it was an open question. It was an open question until that morning. Former Speaker Paul Ryan texts you that he’s worried that Pence is going to break.”

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said, “You know, there’s a phone call that I was on January 4 where for the first time I understood, and I’d been invited to this call because I was on a list of leadership.”

Tapper said, “They forgot to take you off the list.”

Cheney said, “I assume that’s what happened. And that was the first time I understood the details of this plan to have Vice President Pence actually reject legitimate votes, to use these fake electors as an excuse to reject the votes. And that was a terrifying moment. I did not know on that day, you know, that the vice president and his counsel had at the same time been talking to the Senate parliamentarian and working through language that would make clear he couldn’t do that.”

Tapper said, “And look if the next time it’s Vice President Kristi Noem or J.D. Vance or Tucker Carlson, who knows?”

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