After offering a slew of tweets about the mounting evidence of anti-Semitic and anti-gay comments by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, CNN’s Jake Tapper broke with the rest of his establishment media colleagues on Monday by spending nearly three minutes during The Lead exposing it.
“I want to turn to some news on Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. He went on an anti-Semitic rant during a major speech a week ago — yesterday,” Tapper began at the 4:50 p.m. Eastern mark prior to a clip of Farrakhan railing against “the Jews” in Hollywood creating the rise of transgenderism.
Following the clip, Tapper noted that “despite the anti-Semitism and homophobia inherent in that clip, several leaders of the Women’s March were — are supporters of Farrakhan and have not condemned him” plus “[m]embers of the Congressional Black Caucus.”
The CNN host pointed to one of those CBC members in Democratic Congressman Danny Davis (Ill.), who told The Daily Caller’s Peter Hasson on Sunday that he “not only refused to denounce Farrakhan, he said ‘the world is bigger than him and his Jewish question.’”
An exasperated Tapper turned to former Obama administration official Jen Psaki and wondered:
“Ah — why is it so tough for some people to condemn a rabid anti-Semite who is always misogynist and anti-LGBTQ?”
Psaki responded that “[i]t should not be” and presented a winding response that there’s always going to be “disagreements” and “people are going be asked if they’re going to denounce it for good reason and there will be alignments that's have been together, women, the CBC, others that will have division over this.”
“Why can't people criticize it? I mean, — past relationships, their own caucuses, and constituencies sometimes play, but it’s still hard to understand,” she concluded.
Thankfully, CNN White House reporter (and former Daily Caller White House correspondent) Kaitlan Collins was blunter:
I mean, it’s a pretty low bar to denounce something like that and the people who are, you know, supporting the Women's March, what are they out there supporting for? Equality and all this stuff and that is opposite of equality. So, how is that hard to denounce?
Tapper stepped in to recap more of what had been uncovered thus far in 2018 about Farrakhan, continuing to go farther than anyone else in the non-Fox News media has, or probably will do:
It shouldn’t be and yet, there — you know — there's been reporting about, I think The Wall Street Journal reported on, like, a secret meeting that Keith Ellison, who’s the vice chair of the DNC, had with individ — had with a group of people, including Farrakhan. There was a secret meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus had with him. There was this photograph of then-Senator President Obama that had been hidden from the public for several years. So people want to have the association but they don't want to get dinged for it publicly.
The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol rounded out the discussion, noting that he was recently on a panel with a female Democrat and she informed him that while Republicans have challenges, Democrats have plenty of their own.
Tapper took a verbal beating on how he handled the February 21 CNN town hall/show trial on gun control, but Monday’s showing should remind viewers of Tapper’s fairness that few in the liberal media possess.
At the end of the day, The Daily Caller deserves a note of praise as their intrepid reporting dating back to January despite months of silence from the liberal media. If there were photos or quotes of a Republican praising David Duke, all three cable networks, CNN, MSNBC, and the major newspapers wouldn’t stop talking about it (and rightfully so).
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on March 5, click “expand.”
CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper
March 5, 2018
4:50 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Race in America; Nation of Islam Leader Farrakhan Gives Anti-Semitic Speech]
JAKE TAPPER: I want to turn to some news on Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. He went on an anti-Semitic rant during a major speech a week ago — yesterday. Here’s a look.
LOUIS FARRAKHAN: He talked about their grip in Hollywood and how the Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out, turning men into women and women into men.
TAPPER: Now, despite the anti-Semitism and homophobia inherent in that clip, several leaders of the Women’s March were — are supporters of Farrakhan and have not condemned him. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who have met with him and asked for their comments, one of them — Congressman Danny Davis, not only refused to denounce Farrakhan, he said “the world is bigger than him and his Jewish question.” Ah — why is it so tough for some people to condemn a rabid anti-Semite who is always misogynist and anti-LGBTQ?
JEN PSAKI: It should not be. The reason this is relevant, our political world is, as you just noted, that there's disagreements that people are going be asked if they’re going to denounce it for good reason and there will be alignments that's have been together, women, the CBC, others that will have division over this. Why can't people criticize it? I mean, — past relationships, their own caucuses, and constituencies sometimes play, but it’s still hard to understand.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Race in America; Dem Rep Doesn’t Denounce Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitic Rant]
KAITLAN COLLINS: I mean, it’s a pretty low bar to denounce something like that and the people who are, you know, supporting the Women's March, what are they out there supporting for? Equality and all this stuff and that is opposite of equality. So, how is that hard to denounce?
PSAKI: Right.
TAPPER: And this —
PSAKI: And it shouldn’t be. And it shouldn’t be.
TAPPER: It shouldn’t be and yet, there — you know — there's been reporting about, I think The Wall Street Journal reported on, like, a secret meeting that Keith Ellison, who’s the vice chair of the DNC, had with individ — had with a group of people, including Farrakhan. There was a secret meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus had with him. There was this photograph of then-Senator President Obama that had been hidden from the public for several years. So people want to have the association but they don't want to get dinged for it publicly.
BILL KRISTOL: You know, I was on a panel with a Democrat just a couple days and she was commiserating with me about the problems of the Republican Party. A lot of Democrats like to commiserate with me about that now, I guess and feel sorry for me, but an then she said you know what? We’ve problems in our own party, too. I mean, both parties have authoritarian and intolerant types in their electorate with some support from — well, with some support, we'll see what happens. There are going to be a lot of primaries on the Republican side, beginning in Texas tomorrow. But there are actual a few competitive ones on the Democratic side. It’ll be interesting to see whether this strain of the party or other strains of the party that are not the traditional, you know, sort of moderate liberalism of a lot of Democrats start to prevail. So, it’s not just the Republican party that has some bitter fights ahead of it this year, I think.
