‘Jake, I Know What You’re Trying to Do’: Republican Doesn’t Appreciate Tapper’s Question About Trump

Try as he might, CNN’s Jake Tapper could not get a New York GOP congressional candidate to answer a question about Donald Trump.

Kellen Curry (R-NY) spoke with Tapper Friday about his hopes to win the House seat just vacated by former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who was expelled from the House of Representatives just hours before. An Ethics Committee probe determined that Santos spent campaign money on personal expenses such as Botox injections and OnlyFans.

Tapper asked Curry which Republican presidential candidate he supports:

CURRY: I’m going to support the the day.

TAPPER:  It’s not the end of the day. It’s only 4:23. Who do you like?

CURRY: At the end of the day, Jake, I’m going the the Republican nominee.

TAPPER:   It’s not the end of the day. It’s 4:23. Who do you like? Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump, Chris Christie, who is just from across the river? You must like one of these guys.

CURRY: Here is what I like, Jake. I like the process. I like the fact that we’re having a vigorous debate right now about who is going to be the standard-bearer. And I look forward to seeing that debate play itself out. We’re going to have debates, Iowa is coming up, New Hampshire is coming up. And, so, we’ll see. I don’t think we should get ahead of the process. I think we should allow it to play out. I think we should allow voters to weigh in. You know, folks don’t like to be told what to do or what to think. And, so, we’ll see where it goes from here.

TAPPER: Well, Kellen, with all due respect, you had a lot to say about George Santos. He’s now gone. And George Santos — who had certainly a lot of embarrassing things that he did, said, and has been accused of, and is charged with — is a piker compared to Donald Trump. And yet, you don’t have anything to say about him?

CURRY: Jake, I know what you’re trying to do—

TAPPER: I’m not trying to do anything!

CURRY: The fact is, Donald Trump deserves his day in court, he deserves due process, he deserves everything that’s afforded to every single American. I don’t think we should get ahead of that process, either. So, we’ll see where it goes. There’s no need to rush to a judgment right now about Donald Trump. The fact is, he’s going through court proceedings, he’s going through a campaign, and we’ll see what the American people decide.

TAPPER: Ok, well, what about the civil court that already found him guilty and awarded a woman $3 million for a sexual assault? That day in court already happened. Do you have an opinion about that?

CURRY: Well, Jake, here’s what I do have an opinion about. When I get on doorsteps, people aren’t asking me about Donald Trump. People aren’t asking me about some civil case or asking me, how are we going to fix the migrant crisis that’s impacting New York City — how are we going to fix the inflation that’s affecting American families, how are we going to bring down the cost of living here on Long Island? There’s nothing I can do about what’s going on with Donald Trump. The only thing I can do is deliver real leadership to this district and that’s what we’ve been talking about for the past nine months and that’s what I’m going to be focused on.

Watch the entire exchange via CNN above.