This time it was not his increasing estrangement from the truth that turned CNN’s Jake Tapper into a Sunday morning laughingstock, it was the fact that he behaved like a 13-year-old girl who did not get enough sleep. His absurdly unprofessional interview with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller was filled with enough childish insults to fill the Dear Diary of any surly teenager.
In an effort to deflect from his adolescent behavior, the left-wing Tapper retweeted Glenn Greenwald defending the fact that Tapper kept interrupting Miller…
“For those angry at @JakeTapper for cutting off Stephen Miller … watch his aggressive interview today of the always slippery @RepAdamSchiff,” Greenwald said, adding, “He treats everyone equally[.]”
For those angry at @JakeTapper for cutting off Stephen Miller (who was incredibly obnoxious & refused to abide by basic protocol of letting others talk), watch his aggressive interview today of the always slippery @RepAdamSchiff. He treats everyone equally https://t.co/nf4ZfKiY1N
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 7, 2018
With all due respect to Greenwald (an openly left-wing journalist I do respect), that is simply untrue.
To begin with, no one is angry about Tapper interrupting Miller. We expect that from journalists. Politicians arrive on TV to push their message. Partisan anchors invite them on to demand answers on specific questions. This has been true since the invention of TV. Interruptions are expected and the least of Tapper’s problems.
Let me begin by asking everyone to accept Greenwald’s challenge. Please do compare Tapper’s interview with Schiff here to his interview with Miller here.
I’ll wait.
To begin with, Tapper is nowhere near as aggressive with Schiff as he was with Miller. Also, Tapper begins his interview with Schiff by offering the Democrat a lay-up question about Trump’s “stable genius” comment. Tapper’s first question to Miller was to ask if President Trump colluded with Russians at Trump Tower.
Secondly, by volunteering his own opinion that Trump does indeed “cast a dark cloud” over the decision, Tapper goes so far as to reaffirm Schiff’s criticism of the FBI re-opening investigations against Hillary Clinton. Democrats sure got it good.
Nevertheless, Tapper does press Schiff on a couple of awkward questions. It must also be acknowledged that Schiff is not at all combative — but has no real need to be when interviewed by someone on the same side — whereas Miller swung into the studio on a vine gripping a knife between his teeth — God bless him.
But even if you grant Greenwald all of his points, there is one very clear difference between Tapper’s Schiff interview and the Miller interview, and that is Tapper’s relentless stream of hostile, deeply personal, objectively unprofessional insults — behavior that would not only result in a third-grader banging erasers after school (is my age showing?), but is way outside the norms of what we expect from those who pose as objective journalists.
Here is a sampling of Tapper’s unrelenting cheap shots against Miller:
…”I’m sure [Trump’s] watching and he’s happy that you said that.”
…”I think the viewers right now can ascertain who’s hysterical.”
…”because it’s my show and I don’t want to do that.”
…”Stephen, Stephen, Stephen, settle down, settle down, settle down.”
As Miller continued to get the best of him, Tapper retreated to where he frequently retreats when rattled: spreading disinformation, which came in the form of this poorly worded piece of Very Jake News…
“The president has an approval rating in the 30s, I don’t know what “magical” you’re talking about.”
That is empirically untrue. Every recent poll has Trump at 40 percent or higher, as does the Real Clear Politics poll of polls.
Then the Tapper meltdown occurred…
…”Stephen, I get it. You have one viewer you care about right now [Trump] and you’re being obsequious right now [garbled] in order to please him.”…
Obviously angry and over-matched, even as Miller was talking, Tapper abruptly ended the interview with…
“I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time.”
While Ann Coulter is correct that it was actually Tapper who was playing to an audience of one — his Svengali Jeff Zucker — hats off to Miller, who brilliantly pressured Tapper to a point where the mask slipped more than just a little.
As we saw on Election Night, when the pressure is on, Tapper reveals his true left-wing self, and it is never pretty:
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Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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