CNN’s Jake Tapper has always held a special place in the hearts of some conservatives. Desperate to feel like part of the club, a certain sect on the right long for his retweets and snarky acceptance. Even when he steps out of bounds, they lay off just to be sure to not burn any precious bridges. Because of this they paint a mythical picture of Tapper just being a straight news guy. Never mind his long history of partisanship or the fact that he’s a Democrat, by golly he’s fair.
Sen. Joe Kennedy was on Tapper’s show yesterday and got a taste of his fairness. It ended in Tapper making a ludicrous claim and getting fact-checked.
The Daily Caller provides some excerpts.
“But the Senate intelligence committee, run by your colleague Republican Senator Richard Burr, also has a great many hearings and depositions completely in private,” Tapper said. “Completely in private.”
“That’s true,” Kennedy nodded. “That’s true.”
“And Democrats are allowed to participate …” Tapper continued.
“That is classified information,” Kennedy interrupted. “They are dealing with classified information.”
“Not everything,” said the CNN anchor.
I want to stop here because you’d think a newsman like Tapper would understand the difference between the Senate Intel Committee, which by definition deals with classified intelligence, and an “impeachment inquiry,” which is political by its very definition. You know what else the Senate Intel Committee doesn’t do? Selectively leak from every interview in order to push a public, partisan narrative.
Tapper might have an argument if Schiff weren’t leaking like a sieve to bolster his political position. The claim that things must be kept secret, even while these leaks occur doesn’t pass the smell test. Has Tapper asked Schiff during one his near hourly CNN hits why it’s acceptable for a 15 page opening statement to end up in the public domain but not the other 10 hours of testimony which contain all the context? Of course he hasn’t.
Eventually, Joe Kennedy would set the record straight.
“Almost all of it is,” said Kennedy. “There is no classified information here.”
The fact that Tapper was even trying to make that line of argument shows how biased he is. The fact is that absolutely nothing Schiff is doing in the SCIF requires secrecy. There is no classified information being exchanged or studied. He’s using the SCIF as a political shield and the media are happy to play along. Trying to compare that to the Senate Intel Committee is just disingenuous on its face.
Tapper was crying last weekend because Republicans were refusing to come on his show. I can’t imagine why they would with this kind of interviewing, right?
Impeachment is literally the attempted removal of a duly elected President from office. There’s a reason the historical precedent is to keep it as transparent as possible, vote on rules, and allow the minority certain powers. What Schiff is perpetrating is a travesty and deserves to be called out, not excused by hacks like Tapper.
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