Jake Tapper Calls Out Fox News Hosts Who Promoted ‘Big Lie’ of a Stolen Election Which Led to Deadly Capitol Violence
CNN’s Jake Tapper ended State of the Union on Sunday by imploring Fox News personalities that helped spread President Donald Trump’s “big lie” that the election was stolen to correct the record immediately.
Of course, there is zero evidence of a “rigged election.” The deadly insurrection in the Capitol on January 6th was inspired by the belief the election was stolen.
Tapper opened the segment blasting House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who admitted in a speech on the House floor speech that Biden won the election. Tapper noted that there was “zero acknowledgment that McCarthy himself, for two months, pushed that very same big lie rhetoric” before airing a clip of McCarthy saying, “President Trump won this election, so everyone who is listening, do not be quiet. Do not be silent about this. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes.”
It wasn’t just McCarthy who fomented the dangerous belief that President-elect Joe Biden only won because of a “rigged election.” As Tapper pointed out, Rep. Steve Scalise did the same, as did 120 Republican members of Congress who signed on to thespecious of lawsuits from the Texas AG ostensibly designed to overturn the election results. But the real focus for Tapper’s disgust was the talking heads on Fox News.
“Where people go to see the big lie?” Tapper set up. “MAGA media.” A montage of Fox News hosts like Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, and Pete Hegseth was then presented to viewers, followed by Tapper’s damning assessment. “MAGA media, where hosts not only didn’t push back on the big lie, they also participated in it,” he explained. “It was a joint effort by the Trump team and MAGA media, and millions, millions heard lies about election fraud day after day.”
And so it went, eventually leading to footage from the Capitol insurrection in which viewers could hear chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” by protestors who believed the false information that Tapper noted was irresponsibly doled out to them.
“And that is how the terrorist attack of January 6th happened,” Tapper said. “Millions of Americans infected with the virus of disinformation. It was a joint effort by far-right hate groups that the president has been playing footsy with for years and radicalized infected Trump supporters and MAGA media. Multiple dead bodies later, no contrition, no apologies, no acknowledgment of what they did.”
“Until those who spread the big lie worked to correct it putting out a vaccine of facts and truth, I fear that the U.S. will continue to be in this bad and dangerous place even after the inauguration,” Tapper concluded, appearing to get emotional over the current state of disrepair of this nation’s union. “And I wish, in my soul I wish, that I saw any evidence that any of these people had a conscious for this to even nag at.”
Watch above via CNN.
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