Jake Tapper Says Trump ‘Does Have Some Legitimate Grievances’
CNN’s Jake Tapper defended some of President Donald Trump’s grievances against his political opponents and aspects of the justice system.
Trump spoke at the Department of Justice on Friday and reiterated many of his past complaints about Hunter Biden’s laptop and the criminal cases against him, the reporting on which he called “totally illegal.” Trump was formerly charged with federal crimes in two separate cases stemming from his retention of government documents after leaving office and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The president was convicted in New York on state charges of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments.
Shortly afterward on CNN’s The Lead, Tapper aired a clip of Trump railing against “the lies and abuses” perpetrated by the DOJ, which he said “weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try to thwart the will of the American people.”
Tapper reacted by saying that some of Trump’s gripes have merit.
“You don’t have to be a member of MAGA to say, ‘You know what those Peter Strzok-Lisa Page texts were awful. There was a FISA abuse. There was that weird thing with Carter Page [no relation to Lisa Page]. I don’t know about that Alvin Bragg case where he, like, basically invented a felony.’ You don’t have to be a member of MAGA to look and say, ‘You know what? He does have some legitimate grievances.'”
CNN political commentator Xochitl Hinojosa pushed back.
“Merrick Garland was a judge,” she said, referring to the former attorney general. “He was a long career prosecutor. He did everything to follow the facts and the law and allow that to happen. And it was a special counsel matter where Merrick Garland wasn’t making the decisions. What I’ll say even further, there is a [grand] jury in both Florida and D.C. that believed that there is enough evidence for Donald Trump to be indicted… on 44 counts. And this isn’t just some conspiracy theory. There was no weaponization. The federal government believes that Donald Trump committed crimes.”
Tapper responded to clarify, “I should note I was talking about the Russiagate investigation and the Alvin Bragg case, and you deftly switched it to the Jack Smith investigation.”
Watch above via CNN.
