CNN debate moderator Jake Tapper's sharpest anti-Trump commentary over the years

CNN anchor Jake Tapper's 5 most incisive anti-Trump moments over the years

CNN's decision to have Jake Tapper moderate the first presidential debate this year surprised many critics, who pointed to Tapper's critical coverage of former President Donald Trump. The 2024 presumptive GOP presidential nominee expressed hope that CNN would treat him fairly in a recent podcast interview, stating that there’s a "good 10% chance" of it happening and mentioning that he and Tapper "used to get along." Tapper will be joined by fellow anchor Dana Bash for the debate on June 27 in the network’s Atlanta studios. "Jake Tapper is a well-respected veteran journalist who has covered politics for decades and has extensive experience moderating major political debates, including CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate this cycle," a spokesperson for CNN told Fox News. "There is no one better equipped to co-moderate a substantial and fact-based discussion and we look forward to the debate on June 27 in Atlanta." Here are five of Tapper’s fiercest anti-Trump moments:

1. Likening Donald Trump’s White House run to a ‘long national nightmare’

Emotions ran high on CNN's broadcasts when Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Jake Tapper announced, "For tens of millions of our fellow Americans: their long national nightmare is over." In a passionate monologue, the CNN anchor remarked, "It's been a time of extreme divisions, many of the divisions caused and exacerbated by President Trump himself.” "It's been a time of several significant and utterly avoidable failures, most tragically, of course, the unwillingness to respect facts and science and do everything that could be done to save lives during a pandemic. It has been a time where truth and fact were treated with disdain," he went on to say, adding. "It was a time of cruelty where official inhumanities such as child separation became the official shameful policy of the United States. But now the Trump presidency is coming to an end."

2. Comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler

The comparison to Adolf Hitler has become commonplace in liberal media since Donald Trump took office, and Jake Tapper followed suit. The 55-year-old referenced the Nazi leader in December, last year when criticizing the former president's remarks about illegal immigrants "poisoning the blood of our country." "With four weeks until Ohioans cast the nation’s first votes in the 2024 presidential race, the dehumanizing rhetoric of Adolf Hitler is once again alive and well on the national political stage. This time, of course, in the United States. This time, given life by former president and current Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, whose thoughts on immigrants were made shockingly crystal clear over the weekend," Tapper asserted before playing the video footage of Trump's remarks. "If you were to open up a copy of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf', you would find the Nazi leader describing the mixing of non-Germans with Germans as poisoning. The Jew, Hitler wrote, quote, 'poisons the blood of others'.” “This, according to Hitler, posed an existential threat to Germany because, quote, ‘all great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,’ unquote. There’s really no other way to say it. Donald Trump’s language mirrors this directly," the reporter explained. 

3. Condemning Donald Trump for contracting Covid-19

The nation experienced a tumultuous period during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly when then-President Donald Trump was hospitalized with the virus in October 2020. Jake Tapper seized the opportunity to admonish the POTUS for his handling of Covid-19. "Of course, everyone here at 'The Lead' is hoping for a full and speedy recovery for President Trump," Tapper said at the time. "But we must acknowledge, President Trump has refused to abide by his own administration's health experts about how to avoid contracting this disease." The news anchor lambasted the MAGA figurehead for making fun of people who wore masks and for the lack of "serious questions" raised at various Trump campaign events that did not enforce masks and social distancing. Additionally, Tapper called out members of Trump's family and staff who attended the first debate in Cleveland and refused to wear masks. "We all sincerely wish the best for everyone at the White House battling this cruel and potentially deadly disease, but they continue to put others at risk not only by setting bad examples, not only by failing in the pandemic response but now, quite literally, as carriers of the virus exposing not just fellow officials and senators or journalists or donors, but exposing the flight crews of Air Force One and Marine One, members of the military, or waiters and support staff at Bedminster in New Jersey." Tapper continued. "Make no mistake, this was not just reckless behavior, this was a demonstration of a wanton disregard for human life. President Trump, now in quarantine, has become a symbol of his own failures."

4. Criticizing Donald Trump's 2020 debate performances

Donald Trump drew criticism for his remarks during the first presidential debate in 2020, primarily for his incessant interruptions, however, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash raised the issue in their post-debate coverage. "That was the worst debate I have ever seen," Tapper remarked following the debate, adding. "In fact, it wasn't even a debate. It was a disgrace. And it's primarily because of President Trump who spent the entire time interrupting, not abiding by the rules that he agreed to, lying, maliciously attacking the son of the vice president." Tapper claimed that he wasn't sure how well Joe Biden did but that it was irrelevant because of Donald Trump's debate outing, castigating him for not declaring that he would accept the election results if he lost. "And what occurred to me is the thought that the president does not think he's going to win this election. And he wants to bring the rest of us down with him," he posited. Bash, for one, referred to it as a "s**tshow" and "disgraceful." After the two candidates squared off in a second, more measured debate, Tapper charged that Trump was leading the "single most negative, sleazy campaign in American history for a major party candidate." "Trump and his allies in the media and the members of his family and the Trump allied websites and such are leveling with charges so heinous I’m not going to say them, just nonsense, crap, tied into QAnon, tied into Pizzagate, tied into the worst things you could say about a person," he added.

5. Jake Tapper demands of CNN producers to quit showing Donald Trump with his supporters

Jake Tapper snapped at his CNN producers last year for repeatedly airing footage of Trump celebrating with his ever-ardent supporters after pleading not guilty to federal charges of mishandling classified documents in Miami. The ex-Commander-in-Chief made a stop at the Versailles restaurant in the southern Florida city, where he was welcomed by religious leaders and supporters who prayed with him and extended birthday wishes. Tapper disapproved of the footage. "The folks in the control room, I don't need to see any more of that. He's trying to turn it into a spectacle, a campaign ad. That's enough of that," Tapper said. "We've seen it already." Tapper also informed his viewers, "And as we watch Donald Trump attempt to turn his arrest and indictment into some sort of campaign commercial, we need to remember that the reason we are watching this is because Donald Trump is accused of breaking some very serious national security laws and then obstructing and refusing to cooperate with the FBI."