Jake Tapper wasn’t too happy when one of his guests on CNN mentioned a video that shows a black mob beat a white man while chanting anti-Trump phrases.
Tapper, White House Staff Assistant David Gergen and former GOP congressman Jack Kingston were discussing fears of violence that have swept across the nation following Donald Trump’s election victory.
Tapper and Gergen appeared to be implying that Trump was responsible for the violence and that he needed to make a pointed attempt to comfort those in fear.
To that, Kingston pointed out that, actually, in most reports of election-related violence, Trump supporters have actually been the victims.
“We know in Chicago, for example, that a white Trump voter was beat up by African-American men,” said Kingston.
Tapper shot back, “Why does it matter the race of the people that beat him up?”
“Because that’s what the topic is here,” Kingston retorted. “Just to quote: ‘xenophobia, homophobia, racist and sexist.’ That’s what we talked about in the last hour.”
Tapper wasn’t about to listen to any logic, though.
“All you had to do was say, ‘a Trump voter was beaten up,’” Tapper declared. “I don’t know why you’d mention race.”
For reference, by the way, here are some examples of CNN mentioning race in their coverage of Donald Trump’s victory and the events that happened after.
"This is what happens when you elect a fascist, racist bigot" – Nationwide protests erupt following #Trump's win https://t.co/60QKF7KQIq
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) November 12, 2016
A spate of racist incidents have been reported across the country after Donald Trump won the US presidential race https://t.co/aIARcXafda pic.twitter.com/G5C8FakEO1
— CNN (@CNN) November 15, 2016
.@VanJones68 on #ElectionNight: "This was a whitelash against a changing country" https://t.co/DumWoBvixe pic.twitter.com/Kmt2eBJxci
— CNN (@CNN) November 9, 2016
Apparently, CNN is only okay with the topic of race being brought up as long as the commentary concerns how evil and hateful white people are.
During the Chicago incident Kingston mentioned, the black mob shouted at their victim, “That’s one of them white-boy Trump supporters!”
Just imagine if the roles were reversed in that situation – if white Donald Trump supporters had attacked a black man and shouted “That’s one of them black Hillary Clinton supporters!”
“That’s one of them black Hillary Clinton supporters!”
Would Jake Tapper be as upset about a guest bringing up race in that instance as he was with Kingston?
See the full exchange between Tapper and Kingston below.