CNN’s Jake Tapper Hits Back Hard at Trump Attacks: ‘Our Job Is Not to Please the President’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper hit back at President Donald Trump over his attacks on CNN and the “lies” his administration tells amid a showdown over the hotly-contested Iran ceasefire.

Just hours before the president’s deadline to destroy the “whole civilization” of Iran, conflicting announcements of a two-week ceasefire emerged. The president lashed out at CNN and “ordered” the network “to immediately withdraw” their reporting — “with full apologies” — after two separate statements from different Iranian authorities were read on the air.

Trump FCC Chairman Brendan Carr also issued a not-very-veiled threat, writing on X that “Iran put out an official statement that simply cannot be squared with the one CNN’s false headline attributes to them. Time for change at CNN,”

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper spent several minutes setting the record straight and defiantly telling Trump, “Our job is not to try and please the president”:

JAKE TAPPER: Here’s another question, in the midst of these major earth shaking issues surrounding the ceasefire last night, life and death issues, why was President Trump so focused on attacking CNN for an accurate report we put out on a real statement put out by Iranian government officials?

Maybe you missed this last night, you were sleeping. Not sure. Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Iranian state media read a statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. That’s the country’s highest military body.

That statement spun the ceasefire that claimed Iran had achieved victory, forcing the U.S. to accept its 10 point plan. It said in part, quote, “The enemy, in its unfair, unlawful and criminal war against the Iranian nation has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat,” unquote. CNN reported that statement online, real time.

There was also a separate, more measured statement from Iran’s Minister of Foreign affairs which CNN published as well.

At 7:42 p.m. Eastern, President Trump posted that second statement which basically said Iran would cease their attacks if attacks against Iran stopped and then they would reopen the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks.

But President Trump apparently did not like that first statement that we reported on, the one from Iran’s Supreme National Security council. So at 8:01 p.m. Eastern, the president posted on Truth Social, quote, “The alleged statement put out by CNN World News is a fraud. As CNN well knows, the false statement was linked to a fake news site from Nigeria.

Authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed on the issuance of the fake CNN World statement or was it a sick rogue player? CNN is being ordered to immediately withdraw the statement with full apologies for their, as usual, terrible reporting,” unquote.

Before I go on, let me just say none of that is true. None of that is accurate. Then Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr tweeted, quote, “Iran put out an official statement that simply cannot be squared with the one CNN’s false headline attributes to them. Time for change at CNN,” unquote. Hold that thought on Brendan Carr’s statement.

By 11:39 p.m. President Trump still not over it, claiming that CNN invented the statement. Not true. And wrote, quote, “It was totally made up and posted as a headline for purpose of perhaps inflaming a very delicate situation. CNN just got caught cheating a very dangerous thing to do,” unquote.

Again, none of that’s true. None of that’s factual. None of that’s accurate. Here’s what actually happened. Iranian officials made that first statement. It was reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets and by other news outlets all over the world. CNN also received the statement from specific official Iranian spokespeople who are known to us.

Chairman’s Carr — Chairman Carr’s attack on CNN that, quote, “Iran put out an official statement that simply cannot be squared with the one CNN’s false headline attributes to them,” unquote, is quite revealing. But it doesn’t reveal anything about CNN. If you’ve been paying close attention, you know that the Iranian government frequently speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Some faction of the regime will put out a statement that is hardline, propaganda for its base, for want of a better term. A different faction of the regime releases a more measured statement.

This is not a bug, it’s a feature. It’s clearly what happened here. In fact, today, both the Secretary of Defense and Karoline Leavitt alluded to such thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: What we know is that Iran is going to say a lot of things. A lot of people are going to say a lot of things, claim a lot of things. What has been agreed to, what’s been stated is the strait is open.

LEAVITT: What Iran says publicly or feeds to all of you in the press is much different than what they communicate to the United States, the president and his team privately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: No argument with either of them. The issue boils down to this. The statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which claimed victory for Iran, did not fit the messaging that the Trump administration wanted to project. And instead of calling out the Iranian regime for its conflicting statements or explaining how Iran does this all the time, President Trump attacked CNN by falsely claiming we made it up, by lying to you. We didn’t make it up.

Nor did we present any of Iran’s narratives as fact. We simply presented what the statement said in the context of the rest of the war. And that is our job as journalists, to report on what is happening in a war. Our job is not to try and please the president or only report the statements he likes. We’re going to tell you what’s going on, and we’re going to keep doing that no matter how many lies this administration or the Iranians tell.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!