The Two Faces Of Jake Tapper (Paid Edition):

What Happened to the Former Trump Critic?

Feel free to check the past Biden Era archives and follow the editions to come in the Trump Era on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn (First Come, First Serve!).

Via newsbusters.org

First off, for new free subscribers, here are my two previous posts on Democratic Salesmanship and Trump’s Joint Address.

Let me also share the links to all of my petitions on MoveOn, including my recent call to get John King back at CNN at the Magic Wall and on TV more often. Stop sending this treasure to Media Siberia, Mr. Zaslav.

Secondly, related to this, I came across an intriguing little stat this week. While Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin’s decent rebuttal to Trump on TV got 2 million views across YouTube, it was Bernie Sanders’ online rebuttal to Trump that got 8 million views. In other words, Bernie Sanders’s speech—which did not air on any of the major networks—got quadruple the YouTube interaction of Slotkin’s speech—which did air on all the major TV networks.

Vintage Bernie seems to offer a lot of lessons Democrats need to look at more closely, including on the use of social media and the Internet.

Additionally, another lightning round of news on just how exactly the Trump Oligarchy is ripping you off and enriching his cronies:

• Another SpaceX rocket explodes, which brings into question whether the $38 billion in Elon Musk’s government contracts is worth all those taxpayer subsidies without any accountability whatsoever

• This same Elon Musk also wants to privatize the Postal Service and Amtrak

• 80,000+ VA employees will be fired by DOGE, while Musk is also upending the Social Security Administration

• Criminal cases against inaugural donors and inner circle companies have been dropped since Trump was sworn into office. Via Sludge

• Trump flips and flops further on tariffs with Canada and Mexico. Weakness and confusion, not strength

• Trump might revoke the legal status of Ukrainian refugees, as he has already with Afghans and Venezuelans. Just another way he can put Ukrainian lives at risk

• Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is flooding the airwaves with TV ads touting Trump’s border policies, paid for by taxpayers to the tune of $200 million. Campaign finance violations anyone?

• Trump’s Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson has a history of virulent anti-Semitism and racism. Most notably, she took issue with the Anti-Defamation League’s tributes to Leo Frank, an early 20th century Jewish victim of lynching in the American South, suggesting Mr. Frank actually committed the crime he was falsely accused of. Maybe Trump should focus on rooting out Anti-Semitism in his own government before pretending to care about Anti-Semitism on college campuses.

• Watch Senator Chris Murphy break down this Trump cryptocurrency meme scheme into simple and very clear terms. Senator Murphy should be one of the head 2026 midterm messengers for the Democratic Party

• Congressman Al Green was censured by House Republicans for interrupting Trump’s address. Can we now propose censure resolutions for Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert?

• Trump’s Commerce Secretary wants to change the way we measure the economy in GDP. AKA, Cook the Books

• A Climate Job Boom is occurring, at least up to this point across America

• Louisiana’s racial redistricting case is heading back to the SCOTUS on March 24

• Congressman Sylvester Turner just passed away, but his Houston seat may be vacant for a while if Greg Abbott delays a special election (advice: New York’s Governor should delay Stefanik’s NY-21 special election if that happens)

• A lesson for progressive Democrats: whenever you primary incumbents, win or lose, research shows those same incumbents are influenced to embrace some of the key progressive populist policies, especially on economics. So keep primarying “moderate” incumbent lawmakers like the Manchins and Sinemas of the Democratic Party

• Plus, The Last Bake Sale: The Fight for Fair Funding by Andru Volinsky is now out. You can check it out at LastBakeSalebook.com

Okay…

I remember when I was a little younger seeing Jake Tapper on CNN. I wasn’t his number 1 fan or anything, but I would definitely watch the show at times. CNN was, after all, supposed to offer a fine line between good hard reporting and presenting both sides of an argument on policy or ideology.

As I have mentioned here, CNN has changed a lot under the leadership of David Zaslav and Mark Thompson, men who want to appease Trump and who talk about Trump’s election as being good for “mergers & acquisitions” in the media industry. So much for CNN being the reputable source it once was (though at least some network journalists like Kaitlan Collins, Kasie Hunt, John Berman, and Pamela Brown are still trying to do their jobs).

But I digress a little. Back to Tapper.

I respected Jake Tapper for some time, who in the first 4 years of Trump followed the model of John King and Christiane Amanpour, and especially Jim Acosta. That is, report the facts, call out the lies, recognize the truth, and hear both sides. I give him credit from 2017 to 2021 in the times I watched his show(s). He did what he was supposed to do.

Now, however? Well that’s a different story.