Chris Licht, the network’s new president, has made it clear that he wants to move CNN away from becoming anti-Trump TV in order to reclaim the journalistic credibility the network once has.
His staff and programming changes first gave the impression that he was serious. Jeffrey Toobin, John Harwood, and Brian Stelter were all dismissed by Licht because of their negative criticism against the previous president Trump. Then, he demoted ultra-liberal anchor Don Lemon from primetime to a soon-to-be-revamped morning show with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, replacing “New Day” co-hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar (who disputes he was demoted) (both will find new roles at the network). With her widely-watched “Roll The Tape” segments, which almost never targeted Democrats, Keilar, like Lemon, emerged as one of CNN’s most vocal opponents of Republicans.
For Lemon’s former two-hour evening time slot, the network executive chose CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota and analyst Laura Coates, at least through the November elections. Conservatives applauded CNN’s hiring of Stephen Gutowski, the founder of The Reload and an authority on firearms, as part of the network’s new “Guns in America” beat.
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However, Licht’s biggest risk was his decision to occupy the 9 p.m. ET time slot, which had been vacant ever since Chris Cuomo, CNN’s most popular presenter, was fired in December 2021.
He goes with Jake Tapper.
Licht is rumored to want Tapper to be the ‘new face’ of CNN. Tapper had anchored the midday show ‘The Lead’ for almost ten years. After serving as the moderator for presidential primary debates in the 2016 and 2020 election cycles as well as the Parkland town hall in 2018, Tapper benefits from his high profile at the network. He also oversaw the network’s coverage of the Russia inquiry.
Tapper was undoubtedly just as biased throughout the Trump administration even though he wasn’t nearly as boisterous as his colleagues Lemon and Keilar. In 2019, he charged that Trump had acted as a “spokesman for the Kremlin” by appearing to counter allegations made by his own government. He retweeted Trump hater George Conway in 2020, who referred to the president as “100% nuts” and ridiculed him for having COVID, calling it a “sign of his own failings.” Trump’s official loss in the 2020 election led Tapper to claim that the “long national nightmare” was finally over.
Since Biden assumed office, Tapper has intensified his animosity toward Trump and even broadened it to include a significant portion of the Republican Party. He has waged war on GOP legislators who have questioned the outcome of the 2020 election and banned such “election deniers” from appearing on his CNN programs, despite making an exception for Democrats like Stacey Abrams, who is infamous for refusing to accept her loss to Brian Kemp in the Georgia governor’s race in 2018. He claimed earlier this month that Republicans who assert Big Tech corrupted the 2020 election by burying the Hunter Biden laptop story were “more cynical” than outright election skeptics.
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It might be an opportunity for the anchor to start over and support his new boss’s vision of making CNN a nonpartisan network by appealing to viewers of all political stripes, not just Democrats, with the promotion to primetime, which CNN has said is also temporary through the midterms, according to reports.
It appears that no pivot has occurred thus far.
Unstable lies that were produced out of Donald Trump’s resentment over his defeat and his reluctance to accept reality… This anti-democracy craziness has already crept into the same Capitol Hill corridors where the rioters previously gathered… You, the voter, are now in a somewhat precarious situation as a result of all of this. You ought to be able to enter the voting booth and cast your ballot on matters that have an impact on your life, such as the economy, crime, education, and health care. The question “what can this candidate do for me, my town, and my children in the next two years?” is no longer asked in too many campaigns. Additionally, you must now inquire as to whether the candidate supports democracy. In his second primetime broadcast, Tapper blasted “election deniers” who were running for government.
In the program from October 12, Tapper promoted the Jan. 6 Committee’s planned final hearing, referring to it as “one more chance to attempt to convince rational Americans about the dangers of the anti-democracy movement” before the midterm elections.
The first eight episodes of Tapper’s new show, “CNN Tonight with Jake Tapper,” were reviewed by Fox News Digital.
On October 11, CNN anchor Jake Tapper made a splash with an exclusive interview with President Biden, giving him his fourth televised interview of 2022.
CNN’s Jake Tapper received criticism for questioning the patriotism of a disabled Republican congressman who opposed impeachment.
The softball interview was criticized by critics for garnering so little attention, practically receiving no coverage on the five Sunday shows that weekend, including CNN’s “State of the Union.” The Washington Post stated that federal investigators claim they have “strong evidence” against the president’s son Hunter for a number of offenses. Perhaps this is the result of the questions he asked the president, such as the one regarding the potential charges that the president’s son may face.
How do you respond to that personally and politically? Tapper only questioned Biden.
Tapper didn’t question the president about whether he’d think about pardoning his own son or inquire about his possible involvement in Hunter’s questionable international business operations. The inquiry comes after Tapper’s lackluster reporting on the Hunter Biden incident, which he himself ignored during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Despite having Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vice President Joe Biden on board, Tapper’s debut couldn’t draw in a seven-figure audience, drawing only 854,000 viewers overall, placing it far behind “Hannity” on Fox News with 2.6 million viewers and “Alex Wagner Tonight” on MSNBC with 1.6 million.
The program usually kicks off with a 12-minute monologue from Tapper that incorporates intricate choreography as he moves from screen to screen and turns to several cameras. He has attempted a Russian accent while reading a statement from Vladimir Putin, made references to rappers like Humpty Hump and Salt-N-Pepa, and used cheesy sound effects from a soundboard in his monologues.
Based on the former president’s actions over the years, Tapper claimed in his lecture following the hearing on January 6 that Trump “liked” and “embraced” the “imagery of violence and brutality” and that he “relished the prospect of genuine bloodshed.”
On October 13, Tapper remarked, “And now we must face the case being made by the committee that the violence on January 6 was not simply a tragic accident, that it was part of the plan, and that it is now a Trump tactic.”
Later, he cautioned his audience, saying, “I’d want to assure you there’s no need to worry.” But now that we’ve had today and all these hearings, it is more obvious than ever that the threat is real, the danger still there, and that January 6 might end up seeming like a dress rehearsal at some point soon.
Republican Sean Parnell was urged by CNN’s Jake Tapper not to challenge Democratic Representative Conor Lamb.
The term “political scandal” “took on a whole new meaning” with “Telfon Don,” according to Tapper, who also informed viewers that there were “so many calamities, I do not have time to go into them all in this hour.” The following evening, Tapper delivered a lecture on how political scandals have evolved over time.
After allegations surfaced that Georgia’s Herschel Walker, an ardent pro-lifer, had paid for an ex-abortion girlfriend’s in 2009, Tapper said that Walker was too “immoral” to be elected senator.
“We all have flaws. We can all adapt and evolve, or we can choose not to. However, what gives you the impression that if a candidate is openly, shamelessly, horrifyingly immoral or amoral before being elected, taking possession of the levers of power will result in anything but worsening of the situation? What gives you the impression that they will take action for you or the least fortunate among us? I mean, you can’t put the shameless in their place,” Tapper said on Friday.
The incident involving Walker’s Democratic opponent, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is suspected of evicting low-income tenants from an apartment building his church manages while receiving a sizable monthly housing subsidy, was not brought up on Tapper’s program.
In his speech on Tuesday, Tapper discussed how Republicans have been using the term to disparage Democratic challengers in the run-up to the midterm elections, particularly in relation to crime and the “defund the cops” movement.
However, Tapper defended Democrats, stating that “there is a difference between extremists who are exiled to the outer fringes of their party and extremists who are embraced by their party.” He then quickly brought up Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and her history of promoting conspiracy theories as well as the “openly, hideously, shamelessly racist” remarks Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville recently made at a rally accusing Democrats of being “pro-crime
Trump allegedly “brought all of these crazies into the Grand Old Party,” according to Tapper.
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These extreme viewpoints make realizing the American experiment challenging. With someone who promotes messages and appears to be a member of QAnon, a group that claims Democrats are members of a satanic, pedophilic cult that eats babies, how can you work on legislation? Before playing video of the Capitol disturbance, Tapper shouted, “They paint their political opponents not just as wrong, but as demonic.” 6 January 2021 This is more like physically assaulting the cops than “defunding the police.” Additionally, if he wins re-election, Trump will grant the insurrectionists full pardons. He is endorsing that extremism and that violent extremism.
The CNN host next aired the well-known passage from John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign in which he rebutted a claim that Barack Obama was a “Arab” made by one of his backers. McCain described his Democratic rival as a “good family man, citizen,” even though he didn’t agree with him.
John McCain, a Republican senator and presidential candidate, snatched the woman’s microphone. Today’s Republican Party political figures appear more likely to ratchet up the volume, Tapper concluded.
His opening lectures have so far focused on Jan. 6, attacked Trump and Republicans, or mocked right-wing social media sites in five of his eight lectures. Between October 11 and October 19, a total of 19 of the 40 parts attacked Trump and Republicans, while only three offered minor criticism of Biden and Democrats. The remaining segments mostly covered non-political subjects.
Most of Tapper’s guests have either opposed Trump or supported the Democratic platform. Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Rep. Peter Meijer, both Republicans who oppose Trump, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, Trump-focused reporter Maggie Haberman from the New York Times, and award-winning composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, who bragged about his support for Democratic candidate for governor of Texas Beto O’Rourke, were among his guests.
Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire and a prominent opponent of President Trump, was castigated by CNN host Jake Tapper on Wednesday for endorsing GOP Senate challenger Don Bolduc, whom Tapper called a “election phony.”
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Tapper chided Sununu, saying, “You suddenly welcomed him despite though during the primaries you called him a quote “conspiracy theory zealot who’s not a credible candidate.” But now you’re urging Republicans in your state to support him, even though he’s not really running for office.
“Look, I’m wholeheartedly backing the Republican slate because—guess who’s missing? Any member of my congressional delegation who is a Democrat,” Sununu said. They are actually not present! ‘Incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan really spent years out of state,’ they said.
You understand that I’m not referring to his actual presence. According to Tapper, he was a fervent election liar. He was an election liar prior to winning the primary, but after receiving the nomination, he radically changed his stance after realizing that he needed to appeal to the reasonable people of New Hampshire.
You’re a sane Republican at a time when many people are searching for sane Republicans, Governor Sununu. When you accept folks like them, are you harming the cause of reasonable Republicans? The governor came under fire from Tapper for ratcheting up his antagonism to Democrats.
On Thursday, Tapper posed a similar question to Jeb Bush, a previous presidential contender in 2016: “Do you think there’s room for a’sane Republican’ in the 2024 race?”
CNN hasn’t seen any increase in views as a result of Tapper’s time in primetime. He has, if anything, turned them away.
‘Anderson Cooper 360,’ the show that precedes Tapper’s, averaged 847,000 viewers from October 11 to 19. Only 720,000 people watch ‘CNN Tonight with Jake Tapper’ on average, making it one of CNN’s least popular shows. In the same time period, “Hannity” averaged 2.7 million viewers while “Alex Wagner Tonight” averaged 1.5 million.
In fact, John Berman’s guest hosting of Tapper’s former daytime program “The Lead,” which averaged 815,000 viewers while he was away, attracted a larger audience than his evening program.
