CNN anchor Jake Tapper responded on social media Saturday to criticism since his show surfaced in the nearly 20,000 emails from top-ranked Democratic Party officials released last week by Wikileaks.
In one of the emails, Jason Seher, a writer for Tapper’s show, “The Lead,” is involved in an exchange with Pablo Manriquez, the broadcast media director for the Democratic National Committee.
“Thanks for facilitating Luis coming on today, and bearing with us through a meelee [sic] of GOP nonsense and cancellations and all that. Any particular points he’ll want to make? We’re gonna stay Dem focused…” Seher wrote.
Manriquez forwarded the email to other DNC staffers, saying: “Need to know asap if we want to offer Jake Tapper questions to ask us.”
Wasting no time, Tapper took to Tumblr in a long essay to add a little context — he also dismissed Seher’s remarks as “nonsense.”
It is SOP for a producer to ask an interviewee beforehand if there is anything they want to discuss.
Read this: https://t.co/xsVfP4uqVE— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2016
“The ‘nonsense’ Jason was referring to in his email had to do with a bunch of booking issues, which happens,” Tapper wrote.
“‘Any particular points he’ll want to make?’ is a fairly standard question – producers and reporters ask it all the time of Democrats, Republicans, everyone, to make sure we don’t miss out on news-making opportunities,” he continued.
Tapper said they have asked the same question of Donald Trump campaign staffers and RNC staffers.
He also explained what was meant by the term “Dem-focused.”
“Wanting to stay ‘Dem-focused’ is a reference to the fact that I wanted to focus on the Democratic presidential contest – the fight between the Sanders campaign and Clinton campaign about superdelegates,” Tapper said.
The CNN anchor described Manriquez as “some staffer at the DNC whom I have never even heard of” and said the idea that the DNC was providing him with questions to ask is “an idiotic characterization.”
“I have never been given questions to ask any politician and I never will,” Tapper insisted.
His full remarks can be seen here:
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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