CNN’s Jake Tapper Interrupts Fact-Check to Defend Trump Claim From Joint Address: ‘That Part Is Fair’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper interrupted correspondent Daniel Dale’s fact check to defend a claim President Donald Trump made during his address, calling the claim “fair.”

Trump delivered a 99-minute address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night — essentially a State of the Union address by a different name — that was chock full of memorable and newsworthy moments. Analysts noted the intense partisanship of the speech, while disruptions and quieter protests from Democrats were a running theme.

There were also false, misleading, or otherwise dubious claims from Trump that included a lengthy rant about Social Security fraud that has repeatedly been debunked.

Tapper anchored CNN’s coverage of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, and tossed to Dale for a post-speech evaluation

Now, let’s listen to something the president said about the war in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine. By far. Think of that. They’ve spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending–.

And we’ve spent perhaps $350 billion. Like taking candy from a baby. That’s what happened. And they’ve spent $100 billion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: Those are fictional numbers and this is a fictional narrative. President Trump keeps telling the story about how the U.S. has sent Ukraine way more than Europe has collectively. In fact, Europe has committed and provided more aid to Ukraine during this war than the U.S. has.

So, Trump said the U.S. has spent maybe 350 billion and Europe 100 billion. Well, a German think tank that closely tracks this issue found the U.S. has committed about 126 billion, actually allocated about 121 billion, so way less than 350 billion. He said Europe has spent 100 billion. While the think tank found Europe had committed 263 billion, so way more, actually allocated about 140 billion.

Now, you can get different numbers with different counting methodologies, but nobody legitimate, even the U.S. government itself, has gotten anywhere close to that 350 billion figure that President Trump keeps using, Jake.

TAPPER: Very, very interesting. One thing, though, that you didn’t correct there that President Trump suggested, I did see a study from a European think tank that did suggest that Europeans do buy, or at least last year, bought more Russian oil and gas in terms of the cost than they provided aid to Ukraine. That part of it —

DALE: Fair.

TAPPER: — I think is fair, but you weren’t taking issue with that. But that is an interesting thing for viewers to know. Thank you, Daniel Dale. Excellent work as always.

Watch above via CNN’s coverage of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.