On Friday, as the results of the presidential election were still being tabulated, CNN anchor Jake Tapper repeatedly mocked President Trump’s children, referring to them as “spawn.” Tapper referred to the “untethered and wild allegations being made by the president and his spawn” and encouraged people to “check out the Twitter feed of the president’s spawn, because it is like rantings in crayon by somebody having an LSD trip.”
The three-way conversation among Tapper and CNN’s chief political correspondent Dana Bash and CNN’s White House correspondent Abby Phillip commenced with Tapper pronouncing, “Dana, the three of us have been noting the response or lack thereof from Republican officials when it comes to the untethered and wild allegations being made by the president and his spawn and his supporters about the election, all of the crazy and false claims about it being stolen.”
Tapper brought up a statement from GOP Utah Senator Mitt Romney, referring to it as “mealy mouthed” because Romney started by acknowledging President Trump was within his rights to request recounts or call for an investigation of alleged voting irregularities where evidence exists.
Phillip commented, “And it’s worse when you watch Fox News where many of the president’s advisers and supporters and campaign aides are going on the television, speaking to the president’s supporters every single day, reinforcing falsehoods, frankly fake manipulated videos on social media, these are all things that are corrosive to democracy and not enough republicans are being specific about what the problem is.”
Tapper replied: “And you’re upset about what you see on Fox and you have every right to be, you should check out the Twitter feed of the president’s spawn, because it is like rantings in crayon by somebody having an LSD trip. I mean, is somebody — these are claims that are just so wild that they wouldn’t even make, forget Fox, they wouldn’t make Fox business where, you know, are all sorts of facts go to die.”
Video and transcript below:
Transcript:
TAPPER: And Dana, the three of us have been noting the response or lack thereof from republican officials when it comes to the untethered and wild allegations being made by the president and his spawn and his supporters about the election, all of the crazy and false claims about it being stolen. There is some new development from Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah. What does he have to say?
BASH: Well, we were talking last night. He did put out a statement last night.
TAPPER: Mealy mouthed? BASH: Fine, he spoke out, but he does kind of said let the votes
happen. Not stronger right now, but we’re seeing on Twitter effectively he says that doing things, he, meaning the president, he is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt, and stolen. Doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the republic, and recklessly in flames destructive and dangerous passions. Wow.
TAPPER: That’s strong. But there was a sentence at the top.
BASH: The top had said the president is within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities where evidence exists and to exhaust legal remedies. Doing these things is consistent with our election process. That is kind of fine.
TAPPER: That’s fine. Absolutely. Yes, and there’s a recount going on right now in Georgia because the margin of victory there for Joe Biden is so slim. You see there right now, it’s 1,567 votes, that’s within half a percentage point. So there is a recap that the Trump campaign is asked for that’s going forward.
BASH: Yes, but the fact that he is being so forward leaning more than we’ve seen any prominent republican do in saying to the president cut it out, cut it you’re your undermining democracy is noteworthy. Not it’s not as — Mitt Romney has not done that before, but in this case at this moment in time, I think it is significant.
PHILLIP: Yes, it’s a correction and it was a necessary one, because I think his previous statement left the impression that he was sort of not willing to denounce these broad, sweeping claims of fraud that everyone knows has no basis in fact. And this one is a lot more clear about what is within the leans of what is appropriate and acceptable in a democracy and what is not.
And there should be a lot more republicans making stronger statements frankly about what is going on here, because there is really no justification for the kinds of things that you were hearing from President Trump last night. Almost everything that he claimed was evidence of fraud was not true.
TAPPER: Right.
PHILLIP: Or not evidence of fraud at all. And it’s worse when you watch Fox News where many of the president’s advisers and supporters and campaign aides are going on the television, speaking to the president’s supporters every single day, reinforcing falsehoods, frankly fake manipulated videos on social media, these are all things that are corrosive to democracy and not enough republicans are being specific about what the problem is.
TAPPER: And you’re upset about what you see on Fox and you have every right to be, you should check out the Twitter feed of the president’s spawn, because it is like rantings in cran by somebody having an LSD trip. I mean, is somebody — these are claims that are just so wild that they wouldn’t even make, forget Fox, they wouldn’t make Fox business where, you know, are all sorts of facts go to die.