JD Vance tore into Jake Tapper for taking Donald Trump’s “words out of context.” During his Sunday appearance on State of the Union, the Republican vice presidential nominee lambasted the CNN host and his network for their lack of “integrity” in reporting about the former president.
JD Vance spars with CNN host over twisting Trump's rhetoric
“A viewer of your network would have believed that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin conspired in 2016. That was totally and preposterously false,” Vance told Tapper, who grilled the Ohio senator over the ex-prez's rhetoric about targeting election officials who cheat.
“You’re taking words out of context,” Trump's running mate said, adding, “If you’d like to put up a clip and actually put him in context, I think the American people would realise that Donald Trump is a hell of a lot more reasonable than the people like Liz Cheney, who would like to lie us into war.”
The heated exchange between the pair began when Tapper grilled Vance over retired Gen. John Kelly's suggestion that Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist.” Vance, in turn, questioned CNN's “integrity” over pushing the wrongful claims made by the Harris campaign.
“Now, Jake, we also should remember, I mean, step back a little bit. Ask yourself a basic question about network integrity. You guys talked about the Russia hoax nonstop,” the 40-year-old venture capitalist said. However, Tapper fired back with, “FBI was investigating it, so we covered them.”
{{/usCountry}}“Now, Jake, we also should remember, I mean, step back a little bit. Ask yourself a basic question about network integrity. You guys talked about the Russia hoax nonstop,” the 40-year-old venture capitalist said. However, Tapper fired back with, “FBI was investigating it, so we covered them.”
{{/usCountry}}Vance, who was not satisfied with the journalist's defensive statements, argued,
“You took the words of unnamed FBI agents and put them on your network as if they were the gospel truth. You did it again and again.”
“A viewer of your network would’ve believed that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin conspired in 2016. Now, that was totally and preposterously false,” the VP hopeful added.
As Tapper accused Vance of making “false” remarks about his network, the Republican candidate asserted, “You covered it in a way that gave credence to anonymous sources [and] accusations. You did it yourself. Your network did it, Jake.”