Jake Tapper Breaks Down Trump ‘Sleeping’ at Cabinet Meeting: ‘Not Abnormal for a 79-Year-Old’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper defended President Donald Trump over the charge he fell asleep during a cabinet meeting, while also mocking the White House’s explanation and Trump’s late-night social media habits.

Trump held his final Cabinet meeting of the year, during which he repeatedly appeared to nod off or struggle to remain awake. The performance sparked viral mockery, and CNN circulated a six-box of the alleged naps.

On Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper teased the news at the top of the show by cracking, “Wake up, Mr. President,” and adding, “From the man who coined the term ‘Sleepy Joe,’ President Trump appearing to doze off during his own cabinet meeting.”

Later in the show, he offered a snarky defense of the president by suggesting he was understandably tired from posting on social media.

He also appeared to mock the White House’s explanation that Trump was “listening intently,” but then told ex-Trump White House spokesman Mike Dubke, “This is not abnormal for a 79-year-old to be sleepy”:

TAPPER: Today at the White House, President Trump’s Cabinet meeting and what appeared to be Trump having a little difficulty staying awake, seemingly dozing off during some presentations.

The White House says what you’re seeing here is actually the President, “listening attentively and running the entire three hour marathon Cabinet meeting.”

Now we should say if he was falling asleep, maybe he was a bit tired from all that time online last night where he was retrouthing quite a bit between 7:20 p.m. and midnight, 158 posts and reposts to be exact, ranging from criticisms of Democrats to criticisms of immigrants to conspiracy theories from Alex Jones and more and more.

All right. My panel joins me now. Mike Dubke —

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yes.

TAPPER: — he — he did look a little sleepy in that cabinet meeting. I don’t know if he was dozing off or — or what.

DUBKE: Or listening intently.

TAPPER: Does that what I look like? Does it look like I’m listening intently?

DUBKE: Yes, it does. And I can keep talking if you want me to.

TAPPER: So —

DUBKE: I’ll talk right on through this.

TAPPER: Look, he’s 79 years old.

DUBKE: Yes.

TAPPER: I mean like this is not abnormal for a 79-year-old to be sleepy.

DUBKE: I — I will say this. And this is from my personal experience with the president. He is abnormal in the — in the lack of sleep that he needs. I mean, the fact that you — when was the last tweet of his 158? Probably something like 2:00 a.m. in the morning.

This guy is awake all the time. And I’m not trying to — I’m not trying to pull this Joe Biden, oh my goodness.

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I was just going to say, you sound a lot like Joe Biden’s White House staff.

DUBKE: I know. I know. And I’m really not trying to say that. It is — I think the reason that Elon Musk and Donald Trump were such close friends at the beginning is because both of them have supernatural lack of sleep ability. It is — it is crazy. So I’m not really worried. It was a three-hour marathon press conference, basically. And he’s out there all the time.

TAPPER: Yes.

DUBKE: He conducts — somebody was saying earlier he conducts all of his — all of his activities out in the open. And that’s something we haven’t seen.

HINOJOSA: Yes, I mean, I think that, and that was a lot of what the Biden folks would say, especially when Jake moderate — moderated that debate with Joe Biden. A lot of what they were talking about, that famous debate where he could not really say anything that was coherent was because he had international travel. His family said, you should not be doing this.

You should not be doing a debate when you have international travel right before, et cetera. But at the end of the day, whether it be Joe Biden or Donald Trump, if you’re almost 80 years old or 80 years old, it is time to retire. And it is just time.

I mean, aging is part of the natural process. It isn’t offensive. We all go through it.

This is what happens when you’re 80 years old. And so he will be the oldest president when he leaves office. And I think you’re now seeing signs of that, right?

TAPPER: Yes.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.