Jake Tapper Confronts Dem Campaign Chair for Boosting Fringe GOP Candidates in Tense Exchange: ‘Come on!’

Jake Tapper confronted Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) over the party spending during primaries to boost candidates he portrayed as fringe MAGA election deniers.

Maloney chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which doles out cash for Democrats the party views as vulnerable. Throughout the primaries, the party’s House campaign arm spent millions to help far-right candidates they viewed as easier to defeat than moderate Republicans.

One of those candidates, John Gibbs, defeated Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) and is now statistically tied with Democrat Hillary Scholten.

Tapper brought up the race during an interview with Maloney on Wednesday’s CNN Tonight. He aired footage of Maloney decrying the loss of integrity in elections on the network on Sunday.

The host noted the DCCC spent $53 million to help “election deniers” win their primaries.

“By amplifying these election deniers, aren’t you undermining democracy?” he asked Maloney, who fired back:

Oh, my God, Jake. Let’s be clear. What that question you just played was about was who’s questioning the outcome of elections. And that started with Donald Trump. And we all know it. Let’s be clear, that $53 million, it’s $400,000 at the DCCC in one race, one, where we ran a true general election ad two weeks early. Calling John Gibbs an extremist who’s too conservative.

Maloney insisted it will not matter, as Scholten will defeat Gibbs.

“Come on!” Tapper replied. “You guys were boosting John Gibbs, an election denier, a MAGA Republican so he would beat congressman Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the Capitol attack. You thought Gibbs would be easier for your Democratic candidate to beat, so you boosted him.”

Maloney defended the strategy.

“Well, you’re using that word ‘boost’ to be kind of cute,” Maloney said. “If you want to warm up these leftovers, we can keep going. But right now we have five or six days until we have an election and that’s where my focus is.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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