Jake Topper tried to make himself look good to the far left by claiming that he refused to book any Republican who voted against certifying the election. But, unfortunately, Rep Elise Stefanik kept receipts of the requests by Tapper’s show to have her on. I guess that blows a king-sized hole in his argument. Maybe he should have said he has barred any Republican that refuses to do his show. That would be accurate.
This is exactly what all conservative Republicans should do. They should refuse to go on any propaganda show, where the host is looking for a gotcha moment. The RNC seems to be following the plan saying that their candidate in 2024 would not do any presidential debates unless policies change. The Republican candidate ends up having to debate the moderator as well as the Democratic candidate.
This is what Tapper said before he was caught in a Brian Williams moment:
“It’s not a policy, but it’s a philosophy where I just don’t want to deal with it. I mean, there’s about a third of the House Republican caucus that I am willing to book. I could name them to you if you want.”
But, Stefanik was not the only Republican to turn Tapper down. An aide to Josh Hawley said his boss was also invited on the show but refused to appear.
On Friday afternoon, Stefanik tagged Tapper in a tweet:
@jaketapper brags about his so-called principled ‘philosophy’ not to book certain Republicans — too bad his producer begged to book us,” she wrote. “#TeamElise keeps the receipts! Happy Friday spiraling @jaketapper @CNN!
“What a PHONY!” she added. “ALMOST as bad as [CNN’s Chris Cuomo].”
In a follow-up tweet, Stefanik, who did object to certifying Biden as the Electoral College winner, provided a screenshot of Tapper’s CNN team attempting to book her on his show.
Stefanik showed an email thread dated just last month in which a producer working on behalf of Tapper vowed to get Stefanik on the phone with the host “prior to committing.”
Stefanik did not appear on “State of the Union” that week, so it appears as though Tapper was not being truthful, and was actually turned down by Stefanik.
But the New York Republican was not the only elected official to publicly call out Tapper over his statement to Swisher.