Jake Tapper Tears Into ‘What About Caucus’ Republicans: ‘There Were People Killed In The Capitol. Who Cares About a Hashtag?!’

CNN’s Jake Tapper pulled no punches criticizing Republicans who used “whataboutism” tactics to oppose the impeachment of President Donald Trump, pointing out that people were killed in the Capitol, and that was a much bigger concern than worrying about mean hashtags.

Wolf Blitzer introduced the CNN panel as the House began their official vote on the single Article of Impeachment for inciting the violent riots at the Capitol last week, noting that it was expected to pass, making Trump the only American president to be impeached twice. The remaining question, Blitzer continued, was how many Republicans would join the Democrats in voting to impeach?

Tapper replied that they were aware of seven House Republicans who had publicly said they would vote to impeach, with House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) being the most senior, and that in his view, impeachment had divided Republicans into four groups.

The first group were the ones who were “so appalled” that they were voting to impeach, and Tapper made sure to mention that many of them were “quite conservative.”

“Then there’s a second group of people who do hold Trump responsible but do not favor impeachment for various reasons. I think you can say these are principled Republicans,” continued Tapper, listing Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) as examples. “They have a principled reason for opposing impeachment but they do understand that President Trump did what he did.”

The third group, said Tapper, “unfortunately for the country, is most of the house Republican caucus,” which he termed “the What About Caucus.”

“They’re out there saying what about this rally that got violent in Portland or what about — literally one of them said there were negative hashtags about President Trump on Twitter,” said Tapper. “I couldn’t believe it. ‘What about it?’ Someone cited Sarah [Huckabee] Sanders being turned away by a restaurant.”

“There were people killed in the Capitol. Who cares about a hashtag?!” asked an incredulous Tapper.

The fourth group, concluded Tapper, included people like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who spoke today about unity and acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden had legitimately won the election, “as if Kevin McCarthy has not been fueling these lies, spreading these lies.”

“He knows when he goes on Fox we can see him, right?” asked Tapper, describing comments McCarthy had made on television and on Twitter over the past few months. “I’m sorry, Kevin, but we all saw you say that. You can’t pretend now that you didn’t let the genie out of the bottle.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.