CNN’s Jake Tapper Chuckles at MAGA Totally Taking ‘The Bait’ and Helping Democrats with ‘Nuclear’ Overreaction

CNN’s Jake Tapper chuckled at President Donald Trump’s White House taking “the bait” and overreacting to Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) insults in “nuclear” fashion.

On Tuesday’s The Lead, Tapper said he tried to explain to White House officials that the fiery responses to Ossoff are only pushing more media attention toward him and his Georgia race.

“I mean, I think the White House really took the bait here. I mean, I was trying to explain to a White House person that by going nuclear against reporters for bringing this up or whatever, like, all they were doing was guaranteeing the story. And now we’re sending cameras to Georgia to see what Jon Ossoff has to say,” Tapper said with a chuckle.

During a Tuesday rally, Ossoff took multiple swipes at Trump, calling him a “draft-dodging crook president” and suggesting he wants to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie to their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar” instead of actually doing his job.

The “Natalie” dig refers to Natalie Harp, a close aide of Trump and one who accompanied him recently when Secret Service switched him off of Air Force One in Turkey over an Iranian threat. Press and officials left on Air Force One were reportedly unaware of the threat.

Tapper played a clip of Ossoff explaining his reference to Harp, which White House staffers have been responding to. White House Communications director Steven Cheung called Ossoff a “cuck loser,” and spokesperson Davis R. Ingle branded the Democrat a “feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama.”

“I’ve heard this particular aide referred to as his security blanket. And I think we could say that about any number of the senior aides in the White House. They’re not telling him what he needs to hear. They’re telling him what he wants to hear. And the nation is at war. And we cannot afford that,” Ossoff told MS NOW.

Jonah Goldberg told Tapper he thought Ossoff was “smart” for taking the gloves off, but warned against an insult war with the president, who has long made personal insults a central theme to his campaigns.

“I think what Ossoff has to be careful of is that people have priced in for Trump the fact that he hurls insults, he plays low, he plays dirty in a way that they hold other politicians accountable to. Trump imitators tend to do badly, so it’s probably smart for him to try and not try to triple down on this. He got the White House to take the bait… if you’re going to get into an insult war with Trump, you’re going to end up…you know, it’s like fighting with pigs, you get dirty to kind of thing,” Goldberg said.

“And the pig likes it,” Tapper added.

Watch above via CNN.

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