Earlier this year, CNN’s Jake Tapper called the President out on doing a poor job when it comes to transparency and the press. Perhaps Barack Obama didn’t like this much as he singled out the journalist during Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner with a gratuitous swipe.
With a joke setup that people are leaving the White House, Obama chided, “Even reporters have left me. Savannah Guthrie, she has left the White House press corps to host the Today show. Norah O’Donnell left the briefing room to host CBS This Morning. Jake Tapper left journalism to join CNN.”
It was only back in March that the anchor pointed out ways in which the President hasn’t cherished press freedoms. On March 29, he commented on an Obama speech and noted, “Many believe that Obama's call for us to probe and dig deeper and find out more has been made far more difficult by his administration than any in decades, a far cry from assurances he offered when he first took office.”
Citing the famous reporter Bob Woodward, he continued:
JAKE TAPPER: When one of the Washington Post editors involved in the coverage of Watergate says that your administration's attempt to fight leaks and control the media is, quote, "the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration," well, maybe, just maybe, your lecturing would be better delivered to your own administration.
In 2015, a rally in Paris in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings drew 1.5 million people. The United States government was not well represented. In an opinion piece on CNN.com, Tapper wrote:
The United States, which considers itself to be the most important nation in the world, was not represented in this march -- arguably one of the most important public demonstrations in Europe in the last generation -- except by U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley, who may have been a few rows back. I didn't see her. Even Russia sent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
I say this as an American -- not as a journalist, not as a representative of CNN -- but as an American: I was ashamed.
I certainly understand the security concerns when it comes to sending President Barack Obama, though I can't imagine they're necessarily any greater than sending the lineup of other world leaders, especially in aggregate.
According to the New York Post, Tapper didn’t find Saturday’s joke to be a provocative dig:
But Tapper told us at a swanky Vanity Fair/Bloomberg after-party that the suave swig at the presidential barb during dinner wasn’t intentional. “I wish it was,” he joked.
However, given the journalist’s tough questioning of the Obama administration (as well as Republicans), one has to wonder.
A transcript of Obama’s joke is below:
WH Correspondents Dinner
4/30/16BARACK OBAMA: I won’t lie, look, this is a tough transition. It’s hard. Key staff are now starting to leave the White House. Even reporters have left me. Savannah Guthrie, she has left the White House press corps to host the Today show. Norah O’Donnell left the briefing room to host CBS This Morning. Jake Tapper left journalism to join CNN.
