While CNN host Jake Tapper would eventually press Democratic nominee Joe Biden on his support for NAFTA and “favored country status” for China, his interview with the former Vice President (taped Wednesday and aired Thursday) was largely a Trump-bashing session. It featured Tapper repeatedly teeing up his 2020 candidate to take swings at his favorite hate object. Tapper even let Biden lie about negotiations with North Korea and the timeline of their nuclear program.
The video led in with Biden going off on President Trump and Tapper slow pitching him excerpts from Bob Woodward’s new anti-Trump book, Rage. In more of a statement than a question, Tapper directed Biden to attack Trump’s leadership during the pandemic (click “expand”):
JAKE TAPPER: Well, the way President Trump explains it, and he said this to Woodward March 19 if you take a listen.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (via audio): I want to always play it down, I still like playing it down—
BOB WOODWARD: Yes, I --
TRUMP: -- because I don't want to create a panic.
TAPPER: He said something similar this afternoon. He said he didn't want to create a panic. That's why he downplayed it. He said leadership is about confidence.
JOE BIDEN: Yeah, and that's why we have no confidence in his leadership.
It was the same deal a short time later when Tapper teed up Biden with unsubstantiated claims that “Putin had something on Trump”:
TAPPER: Woodward also reports that former Defense Secretary James Mattis said Trump, quote, “has no moral compass” and that even floated collective action with Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, because Trump is, quote, “unfit.” Woodward also says that Coats couldn't shake the suspicion that Putin had something on Trump. What do you make of this from his advisers?
BIDEN: I think Trump has stunned everyone around him. It’s just how corrupt his thinking is.
After that, Tapper asked Biden for help in convincing his pro-Trump relatives that he was to blame for the virus. “I have relatives all over the country and all over the political spectrum. How do you make the argument to a relative I have in Texas who says, ‘Yeah, the virus is horrible but it's not Trump fault, it's China's fault,’” he asked.
In his answer, Biden began by referring to Tapper’s vague “relative” but eventually made reference to Tapper’s “uncle.” And as we’ve seen from recent Fox News and Breitbart News reports, CNN has a habit of coaching and working with guests and friends behind the scenes, including Tapper. So, it’s not a stretch to think Tapper may have talked with Biden about this off-camera at some point.
Following the first commercial break, Tapper spent most of the next block grilling Biden on his support for trade deals that devastated American workers. He even got Biden to admit Trump’s USMCA was better than NAFTA. But towards the end of the segment Tapper let Biden get away with demonstrable lies about Trump’s negotiations with North Korea:
BIDEN: What has he done with regard to our friends like Japan and South Korea? He’s made some cockamamie deal with his friend sending love letters to Kim Jong-un. I mean, what in God's na—Again, in North Korea, what in God’s name is that all about? He gave him legitimacy. We had firm, firm constraints on what they could buy, what they could sell, and their economy. He's blown it. He's given them so much credibility. They are closer to a nuclear weapon than before. He did the same thing in Iran. I mean, this America first just made America alone.
TAPPER (via voice-over): Coming up next, the age factor. I asked Joe Biden about his own health, knowing that he could be the oldest person ever elected. Stay with us.
Tapper went to another commercial break instead of correcting the record. So, here’s the reality check Tapper refused to do: No sanctions have been lifted on North Korea, Biden was part of the administration that lifted the one son Iran (Trump reimposed sanctions), and North Korea has had nukes since 2006. CNN even has the timeline.
And as Tapper was wrapping up the interview, he actually pressed Biden on his age and his health, noting that presidents have lied to the public about theirs in the past. But notice how he asked the question: “Will you pledge that, if you’re elected, you will be transparent about your health, all facets of your health with urgency so that we know?”
Why not press him to be forthcoming about his health during the election, Jake? And why didn’t you press Biden on his conflicting claims about taking and not taking a mental health exam?
We all know why. This is CNN.
Tapper’s anti-Trump hate-fest interview was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Progressive and ClearChoice. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
September 10, 2020
4:19:01 p.m. Eastern(…)
JAKE TAPPER: Well, the way President Trump explains it, and he said this to Woodward March 19 if you take a listen.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (via audio): I want to always play it down, I still like playing it down—
BOB WOODWARD: Yes, I --
TRUMP: -- because I don't want to create a panic.
TAPPER: He said something similar this afternoon. He said he didn't want to create a panic. That's why he downplayed it. He said leadership is about confidence.
JOE BIDEN: Yeah, and that's why we have no confidence in his leadership.
(…)
TAPPER: Woodward also reports that former Defense Secretary James Mattis said Trump, quote, “has no moral compass” and that even floated collective action with Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, because Trump is, quote, “unfit.” Woodward also says that Coats couldn't shake the suspicion that Putin had something on Trump. What do you make of this from his advisers?
BIDEN: I think Trump has stunned everyone around him. It’s just how corrupt his thinking is.
(…)
TAPPER: I have relatives all over the country and all over the political spectrum. How do you make the argument to a relative I have in Texas who says, “Yeah, the virus is horrible but it's not Trump fault, it's China's fault?”
BIDEN: Let's assume – We’ll take both that relative’s points. It's China's fault. If it's China's fault, why did Trump praise China?
(…)
TAPPER: One other revelation from the book is that Trump appears to have revealed a new classified U.S. weapons system, the existence of it to Woodward. He said, quote, “I have built a nuclear weapon system that nobody has ever had before,” unquote. Woodward says his sources confirmed the existence of this classified weapons system. What's your response to that?
BIDEN: I can't speak to the system but it's not a surprise. You wonder why people in the intelligence committee wondered from the very beginning if they could share data with him, because they don't trust him.
(…)
BIDEN: What has he done with regard to our friends like Japan and South Korea? He’s made some cockamamie deal with his friend sending love letters to Kim Jong-un. I mean, what in God's na—Again, in North Korea, what in God’s name is that all about? He gave him legitimacy. We had firm, firm constraints on what they could buy, what they could sell, and their economy. He's blown it. He's given them so much credibility. They are closer to a nuclear weapon than before. He did the same thing in Iran. I mean, this America first just made America alone.
TAPPER (via voice over): Coming up next, the age factor. I asked Joe Biden about his own health, knowing that he could be the oldest person ever elected. Stay with us.
(…)
TAPPER: One last question for you, sir. If you're elected, you would be the oldest president ever. And I know you've said it's fair for anybody to ask questions about anybody over 70 and their health. The American people have been lied to before by presidents about the president's health; FDR, JFK, Ronald Reagan. We don't know, still, what happened with Donald Trump and his visit to Walter Reed last year. Will you pledge that, if you’re elected, you will be transparent about your health, all facets of your health with urgency so that we know?
BIDEN: Yes. Yes.
(…)
