CNN anchor Jake Tapper appeared adamant about the importance of covering the Hunter Biden scandal Monday, which was the complete opposite approach he took during the 2020 presidential election.
During an interview on the podcast “On with Kara Swisher,” Tapper was asked about the recent plea agreement President Biden’s son reached with the DOJ over his tax crimes. Critics have panned the plea as a “sweetheart deal,” particularly in the wake of explosive IRS whistleblower allegations that prosecutors were blocked from bringing heavier charges and investigators were told not to look into potential financial ties between Hunter and his father.
“I think we cover it. We have been covering it and we need to cover it,” Tapper said.
“Look, I mean, Hunter Biden is who he is. It’s pretty clear who he is,” Tapper continued. “In addition to being an addict, he’s a guy who ethically has – there have been questions raised about his behavior, and I think it’s worth covering. It’s also worth covering in context, the context of everything that’s being said in terms of like how fact-based any of it is or how evidence-based any of it is, but I’m not gonna shy away from covering Hunter Biden. He is the president’s son and has made a lot of money being the president’s son.”
According to Grabien transcripts, in the days following the Post’s laptop news, neither of Tapper’s two CNN programs made any mention of the terms “laptop,” “New York Post” or “Tony Bobuliski,” Hunter Biden’s former business partner who came forward at the time confirming emails from the laptop and insisting the former vice president was involved in their business dealings.
However, Tapper did invite multiple corespondents and guests who peddled the false narrative that the content from the laptop was “Russian disinformation” and a “right-wing conspiracy.”
2022: THE YEAR THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP WAS FINALLY VERIFIED BY THE MEDIA
Fast-forward to October 2022 when Tapper landed a rare interview with President Biden but allotted just one question about Hunter as reports at the time indicated the DOJ was pursing tax and gun charges against his embattled son.
“Personally and politically, how do you react to that?” Tapper lobbed the softball question to the president.
While he avoided covering the Biden scandal during the 2020 election, Tapper was one of CNN’s biggest champions of Russiagate during the Trump years, including giving legitimacy to the debunked Steele dossier, the infamous Clinton campaign-funded memo put together by ex-British spy Christopher Steele that laid out salacious and unfounded accusations about then-candidate Donald Trump.
In May, Tapper acknowledged the Durham report was “devastating” for the FBI and that its findings actually “exonerate” Trump to a degree.