‘What the Actual F?!’ Jake Tapper Takes a Flamethrower to Trump for Feigning Ignorance Over ‘Secret Cabal of Cannibalistic Pedophiles’

 

CNN’s Jake Tapper had a literal WTF moment on his show, The Lead, Friday afternoon, absolutely incredulous that the President of the United States was having such a struggle denouncing the QAnon conspiracy cult.

In a segment with CNN’s Abby Phillip and Washington Post‘s Philip Bump, Tapper brought up President Donald Trump’s comments at Thursday’s town hall, where once again he shrugged off his retweet of an insane QAnon conspiracy theory that the Obama administration had faked killing Osama bin Laden and murdered our own Navy SEALs, and refused to denounce them, claiming “I don’t know anything” about them but he had heard that they were “very strongly against pedophilia.”

Tapper slammed Trump for sounding “like he’s an ally of bigots.” Phillip replied that Trump had allowed this to “become part of the closing message” even though he “has been given several really softball opportunities to knock down white supremacists, to knock down QAnon,” but had failed to do so.

Trump “continues to spread and endorse these deranged conspiracy theories,” said Tapper, cuing up a video clip from the president’s town hall, where Trump refused to answer moderator Savannah Guthrie’s question, claiming he didn’t know about QAnon.

“‘I don’t know that and neither do you know that.'” Tapper quoted Trump, the disgust clear on his face. “He is talking about whether or not the nation is secretly run by a cabal of Satan worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles.”

“‘I don’t know that and neither do you’?” Tapper said again, glancing off-camera. “I mean, what the actual F, Phillip?”

Bump chuckled at Tapper’s reaction, and replied that the “short answer” was that Trump was “reticent to speak out against a group he thinks supports him.” Bump added that Trump was “integral” to this conspiracy cult, that they view him as a savior, and that “makes his failure to renounce them even more dangerous.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.