Highlights:
Tapper, to Manafort:
- so when you….these things, just because you say them...they’re not true.
Tapper, to Brewer:
- Brewer: “I believe the American people want him to win”.
- Tapper: “Not according to polls...”
- Tapper, in response to Brewer’s complaint that the media chooses to highlight Trump’s words: “How DARE we cover the comments he makes.”
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Tapper’s “State of the Union” on CNN this morning was a great take down of both Trump’s campaign manger Paul Manafort and then right after former Arizona governor Jan Brewer, a major Trump surrogate. Trump is now in full battle mode with the media, and it is not surprising that the portion of the media he is obviously going after is not taking kindly to the suggestions that it is the media, not Trump himself, is driving the negative coverage Trump is receiving.
I suppose Tapper is taking Trump’s assertion that the press covering him are the lowest form of life personally, and appears to have reached a limit to his patience.
First Tapper’s interview with Paul Manafort:
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Manafort gives his usual surrogate thing, but then Tapper starts getting into the “Second Amendment People” issue.
Jake Tapper:
“So, one of the reasons that Mr. Trump’s message about the economy on Monday was side tracked was, of course, when he raised the possibility of “Second Amendment people” taking matters into their own hands to stop Clinton from appointing pro-gun-control judges. That’s a controversy that you reject. Trump said afterwords that no one thought he was suggesting violence, take a listen:”
[plays clip with Trump stating that nobody thought that he was talking about inciting violence ‘Nobody in that room thought anything other than what you’ve just said, there can be no other interpretation, even reporters have told me, I mean, give me a break.’]
Again, Jake Tapper:
So, here’s the thing, it wasn’t just reporters. It was Republicans, it was people in Washington who want Trump to win, and if you look at the speech, the man with the white beard sitting right behind Mr. Trump at that event
CNN tracked him down:
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Darrell Vickers: “I can’t believe he said it. The media will have a field day with this one. I was just absolutely taken aghast…. Had we had a chance to talk to him, I would have taken him to the shed.”
Jake Tapper: “So, that’s Darrell Vicker’s, that’s a man who’s gonna vote for Trump, and he interpreted it the same way a lot of other people do, so does Mr. Trump need to listen to what Mr. Vickers had to say, which is “Be more careful with your words”?
Manafort went into his surrogate speak again about how most didn’t interpret the words that way, then lashed into the media for not covering Trump’s economic speech and other events as they should, instead focusing on issues that are unimportant to the race.
Here is where Jake Tapper loses his patience with Manafort:
Jake Tapper: “Ok, first of all, as a factual matter, on Monday my show covered Mr. Trump’s speech, OK? We DID. We covered Mr. Trump’s speech, covered the narrative, AND we covered those Hillary Clinton emails, so when you….these things, just because you say them...they’re not true. We HAVE been covering the substance, we HAVE been covering the things that are bad to Hillary Clinton.
Tapper called Manafort a liar, essentially, on live TV.
Later on his show Tapper took on Jan Brewer, former Arizona governor and strong Trump surrogate:
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Jake Tapper: (talking to Jan Brewer)
“Don’t you as a Trump supporter, doesn’t this bother you when he goes out there and makes...his remark about the Second Amendment that definitely got him off message for a day or two, and then he starts talking about “Obama is the Founder of ISIS”, doesn’t that bother you? You want him to win.”
Jan Brewer: Absolutely I want him to win, and I believe the American people want him to win”.
Tapper interjects: “Not according to polls...”
Jan Brewer: “Well, we have polls that clearly are saying he’s closing that gap now, they are moving forward, I got them in front of me here, uhm… Trump...different kind of candidate….those are the issues people are concerned about, they’re concerned about jobs, the economy, security, and we want to hear more about that, rather than the press completely and continuously just beating down on certain little one word sentences.”
Tapper: “How DARE we cover the comments he makes.”
Tapper then pivots to Trump’s comment in that the only way he would lose Pennsylvania is if the election is rigged.
Tapper: “One of the things he said the other day was about how the election might be rigged, and the only way he would lose a state like Pennsylvania, which has not gone Republican in presidential contests since I was 19 years old, since 1988, he said the only way he would lose Pennsylvania is if the election were rigged. Take a listen [plays Trump clip].
Tapper: “He’s down 10 points in the latest Q poll in Pennsylvania, how on earth is that a responsible thing to say”?
Brewer then flails and gets into a nonsensical diatribe about the integrity of voting being very important, everybody wants to know their vote does count, pollwatchers, certification of the equipment, greeted by an icy and dismissive retort by Tapper.
Tapper: “Yeah, you are not really answering the question.”
Kudos to Tapper for pushing back against Trump surrogates on the false narratives they are trying to advance. They are engaging in damage control, but it is almost like they live in an alternative universe from the rest of us, and Tapper was trying to keep things grounded in reality this time. Most media types just let the Trump surrogates drone on and don’t interject (leave it up to the viewer to decide), so it was refreshing to see Tapper’s push back this morning.