The impeachment of President Trump has been a textbook case in media hypocrisy and on Wednesday's CNN impeachment pre-game show, Jake Tapper illustrated why where he defended the way Democrats behaved during the Bill Clinton's impeachment twenty years ago.
After Wolf Blitzer welcomed viewers by hailing Wednesday as "this truly historic day," Tapper also got in on the dramatization, "This is a serious day, a solemn day, a traumatic day in many ways." He then harkened back to the '90s where he contrasted Clinton's behavior with Trump's, "when you think about the last time the country went through this during the Clinton years in the late '90s, a big difference was back then you had a president who was contrite, who was apologetic."
Clinton apologized because he got caught, but that was not the end of Tapper's faulty comparisons, "he was supported by the Democratic Party but they were saying what he did was wrong, it just wasn't impeachable. Here, for the most part, we have a president who is defiant."
There are so many problems with Tapper's logic here. First, Republicans who call Trump's behavior bad, but not impeachable are told that's not good enough. Second, you still have many Democrats, commentators, and journalists who defend Clinton, saying it was "just sex." Finally, why does it matter that Trump is defiant? Maybe he's actually innocent of shaking down the Ukrainians in order to "get Biden." The fact that he denies he's guilty is not proof that he's guilty.
Tapper then referenced Trump's letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that he on Tuesday compared to something Kim Jong-un would write, "He wrote a rather -- I don't know how to express it, rude and defiant letter to Nancy Pelosi yesterday, and you have a Republican Party that is saying that the president did nothing wrong for the most part."
Finally, Tapper concluded by declaring, "That means in my view at least, the partisan divide about this impeachment is even worse than it was last time and I don’t think we shouldn't belittle how traumatic this is for the country for people who support the president, for people who oppose the country [sic]. It's an ugly day." Maybe, if the media hadn't covered for Clinton and his Democratic defenders in 1999, that wouldn't be the case.
Here is a transcript for the December 18 show:
CNN Impeachment Coverage
12/18/19
8:00 a.m. EasternWOLF BLITZER: Jake, when this day is over, President Trump will have an indelible mark on history.
JAKE TAPPER: That's true. Not just a mark, a stain. This is only the second time in modern American history this has happened. This is a serious day, a solemn day, a traumatic day in many ways. In fact, when you think about the last time the country went through this during the Clinton years in the late '90s, a big difference was back then you had a president who was contrite, who was apologetic and he was supported by the Democratic Party but they were saying what he did was wrong, it just wasn't impeachable. Here, for the most part, we have a president who is defiant. He wrote a rather -- I don't know how to express it, rude and defiant letter to Nancy Pelosi yesterday, and you have a Republican Party that is saying that the president did nothing wrong for the most part. So, that means in my view at least, the partisan divide about this impeachment is even worse than it was last time and I don’t think we shouldn't belittle how traumatic this is for the country for people who support the president, for people who oppose the country [sic]. It's an ugly day.
BLITZER: It certainly is.
