After a five-week hiatus, the Republican presidential candidates meet tomorrow night for their next prime time debate, moderated by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Based on how the various networks handled the first four debates, viewers of Tuesday's CNN debate should expect: 1) the questions will be aimed at getting the candidates to fight with one another; 2) Donald Trump will take more airtime than any of his competitors; 3) Blitzer and his colleagues will gobble up more speaking time than any of the individual candidates; and 4) the audience will be much higher than for the Democratic debates.
Jake Tapper
By Curtis Houck | December 2, 2015 | 5:54 PM EST
During CNN’s live coverage on Wednesday of the tragic shooting in San Bernardino, California, CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes surmised with “no information” to back himself up that it was likely “an anti-government domestic militia group” that carried out the attack. Just over 20 minutes later, however, former FBI Special Agent and Navy SEAL Jonathan Gilliam denounced Fuentes for jumping to conclusions so early because he doesn’t “like to use the word militia or any other term right now because I just don't want people specifically looking for specific people.”
By Matthew Balan | November 10, 2015 | 6:12 PM EST
On Tuesday's The Lead, CNN's Jake Tapper zeroed in on University of Missouri Professor Melissa Click's attack on a student journalist, after he tried to cover anti-racism protests on campus. Tapper bluntly stated, "I have to say that I found this video shocking — not just this mob of students trying to intimidate this student journalist — but they had faculty help!" The anchor later asked Professor Tom Warhover, who also teaches at Mizzou, "Do you think she should be stripped of her courtesy opportunities?" Warhover replied, "I think that's probably a reasonable response."
Tapper to Cruz: Are You ‘Endorsing Conservative Intolerance’ by Attending Event with Activist Pastor
By Curtis Houck | November 5, 2015 | 6:23 PM EST Wrapping up his interview with 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Thursday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, host Jake Tapper asked Cruz about the upcoming National Religious Liberties Conference he’s attending in Iowa this weekend and if Cruz is “endorsing conservative intolerance” since it's organized by an activist pastor named Kevin Swanson.
By Brad Wilmouth | October 22, 2015 | 10:47 PM EDT
On Wednesday's The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN host Jake Tapper devoted attention to Palestinian incitement of violence against Israelis in a way rarely seen in the dominant media as he pressed PLO official Maen Rashid Areikat about recent stabbing attacks against Jews.
By Curtis Houck | October 22, 2015 | 5:54 PM EDT
Reacting to the first round of questioning in Thursday’s Benghazi hearing, CNN hosts and panelists couldn’t help but trip over themselves in gushing over how Hillary Clinton was “very confidence” in “keeping her cool” while answering “utterly baffling” questions about confidante Sidney Blumenthal that the American people supposedly do not “really care about” and see as “a waste.”
By Mark Finkelstein | October 19, 2015 | 8:47 AM EDT
Joe Scarborough says there's an effort underway to delegitimize the FBI investigation of Hillary's email. Did Mark Halperin just abet that effort by alleging that FBI agents conducting the investigation are driven in part by personal animus toward the Clintons?
Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Halperin said that "of all the entities in the United States that represent a threat to Hillary Clinton being the next President of the United States, those FBI agents are probably in the first tier, in part because they're following the evidence wherever it leads, but in part because—let's be honest—a lot of FBI agents don't like the Clintons. View the video, and be sure to watch to the end to catch Hillary cackling in response to Jake Tapper's questions about the email.
By Curtis Houck | October 16, 2015 | 5:45 PM EDT
Finally getting his chance to interview Hillary Clinton on Friday’s The Lead, CNN anchor Jake Tapper didn’t exactly measure up as while he did what other reporters failed to do in asking Clinton about her relationship with Sidney Blumenthal, he cozied up to her on the recent marking of her and Bill’s 40th wedding anniversary plus sarcastically asking he could “get your e-mail address.”
By NB Staff | October 13, 2015 | 3:18 PM EDT
Appearing on the October 13 Cavuto Coast to Coast, Media Research Center founder and president Brent Bozell discussed CNN's double standard as goes the Republican vs. Democratic debate. While the vast majority of questions in the Republican presidential debate were setups for arguments amongst the candidates, by all indications the Democratic debate would largely tee up the participants to attack the GOP, not take on each other over policy disagreements within the Democratic Party.
By Geoffrey Dickens | October 12, 2015 | 2:52 PM EDT
If CNN wants to be balanced in how it moderates the upcoming Democratic debate on Tuesday, it will ask questions that prompt the candidates on stage to fight with one another, because that’s exactly how they handled the GOP debate back on September 16. Of the 74 total questions asked by CNN’s debate moderators at the GOP debate, 55 of them (74 percent) were framed to get Republican candidates to criticize each other’s positions and even personal traits.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 4, 2015 | 1:39 PM EDT
On Sunday’s State of the Union, conservative commentator S.E. Cupp blasted the media for distorting Jeb Bush comments after the Oregon shooting in which the Republican presidential candidate argued that “stuff happens. There's always a crisis. And the impulse is always to do something and it's not necessarily the right thing to do.”
By Matthew Balan | September 28, 2015 | 2:56 PM EDT
CNN's Chris Cuomo painted a cynical picture of Dr. Ben Carson on Monday's New Day, as the newscast covered Jake Tapper's interview of the Republican presidential candidate from Sunday. Cuomo contended that Carson's recent stance against Muslims becoming president of the United States was a calculated move towards a supposedly extreme part of the GOP: "The problem is the candidate...seems to be pandering to a xenophobic religious minority in this country that's anti-Islam."