The Shady Side Of CNN's Jake Tapper Is Hard To Ignore

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Like many television hosts and journalists before him, CNN's Jake Tapper has found a way to harness his personality and keep his name in the papers — or at least on everyone's lips. While "The Lead with Jake Tapper" host has had his fair share of tragedies, he's also managed to stir up a fair amount of controversy. Of course, there's always the bickering between networks, with more conservative outlets like Fox News being willing to point fingers at CNN any chance they get. But lately, Tapper has found himself in hotter water than usual. Across the board, from liberals to conservatives, there's been a shift in perspective regarding how the general public seems to view Tapper.

Coming off the heels of the release of "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, It's Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," which Tapper co-wrote with Alex Thompson of Axios, it seems the internet isn't' taking too kindly to Tapper's promotional tactics. On X, many seem to be perturbed with the "State of the Union" co-host. One user in particular suggested that Tapper was being a bit shady in choosing to write a book about Joe Biden instead of Donald Trump, suggesting that Tapper maybe wasn't "able to get a good book deal talking about" how unhinged President Trump's social media posts have been. While folks who used to be fans of the CNN personality are slowly realizing the truth about Tapper, there are other instances where the news anchor is beginning to lose respect. In fact, there have been several times Tapper has been so shady it's hard to ignore.

Of course, any good journalist should do their best to be fair and balanced — or at least present their reporting in such a way as to support said effort. When it comes to CNN's Jake Tapper, this has often included an unwillingness on his part to admit allegiance to any particular political party. In a post on X from 2021, Tapper said, "I don't belong to any political party," in an attempt to call out some potentially bad behavior from conservative media organization Newsmax. However, how Tapper has presented himself on the small screen could suggest where his politics do truly lie.

In 2020, Tapper caused quite a stir while moderating a disastrous presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. While Trump himself was arguably the main cause of the chaos that evening, it did set a precedent for Tapper to stop holding back his true feelings about Trump. Again, while it might be best for journalists to present an unbiased perspective, and Tapper attempts to appear as such, how he handles some of the more conservative guests and topics on his show or social media might be letting his true feelings slip out. And it's not just Trump that Tapper seems to want to go toe to toe with — he's also given JD Vance a hard time.

President Donald Trump isn't the only person Jake Tapper has gone after — Vice President JD Vance also has drama with Tapper. While it's been fairly easy to dunk on Vance throughout his political career, Tapper hasn't rolled out the welcome mat. During a rather heated interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Tapper repeatedly poked and prodded at the then-vice presidential candidate, at one point even laughing at Vance for asserting that people within Trump's first administration "came into office thinking that they could control Donald Trump."

Vance has had his fair share of brutal moments on CNN, but Tapper has thrown extra shade. Notably, during the 2024 presidential campaign, Vance got badgered with plenty of bad press. From old quotes about how Vance perceives childless women to the time he asserted that Haitian immigrants devoured their own pets, Vance travelled quite the bumpy road to secure his spot in the current Trump administration. Having Tapper bicker with him on-air didn't seem to help at the time, but now that Tapper is getting heat from both sides of the political aisle, his behavior toward some testy guests might be up for re-examination.

CNN's Jake Tapper is getting pinched on all sides over the book he and Alex Thompson wrote together. "Original Sin" seems to suggest there was an ongoing coverup within Joe Biden's administration to keep his supposed mental decline under wraps. While there have certainly been some red flags in Biden's health, the timing and how Tapper and Thompson are handling the book release is under unique scrutiny.

Grabienews put together a compilation of clips where Tapper was seen repeatedly defending Biden's mental acuity. This has led to many calling foul on Tapper's timing of releasing the book after the election — and on his assertion that the media had nothing to do with the alleged cover up. However, this isn't the only shady thing about how Tapper is handling the promotion of his book; there's also the curious case of it hitting the market right as Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis hit the media.

In a grueling takedown on "The Daily Show," host Jon Stewart laid into Tapper for perceived profiteering off of the ill health of a former president. Stewart was critical of the co-authors "[continuing] to push the book in light of this difficult news," as well as using Biden's new health concern "as perhaps even more of a reason to buy this book." While Stewart was aptly poking fun at how Tapper and CNN are now "somberly" promoting the book, it does easily sum up the sheer shadiness of capitalizing off the failing health of someone else.