Following two separate instances of heinous mass shootings, CNN’s Jake Tapper spent the morning on Aug. 4 asking various presidential candidates about white nationalism.
Specifically, Tapper asked both Robert “Beto” O’Rourke and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) if they believe that President Donald Trump is a white nationalist. Unsurprisingly, both candidates answered in the affirmative.
Tapper, who had previously supervised the CNN Parkland Town Hall that celebrated disgraced Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Scott Israel, also had recently provided a platform on his show, “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” for self-described white nationalist Richard Spencer, who was publicly declaring his opposition to President Trump.
The intent behind Tapper’s questions to O’Rourke and Sanders seems clear—an attempt to conflate the term “nationalist” with “supremacist”—assisted by the inclusion of race into his phrasing. On its face, Tapper’s question, inference, and timing were disturbing, in light of the immediacy of the shootings.Continue Reading