‘This Is Where We Are as a Nation’: Jake Tapper Can’t Believe ‘Vice Presidential Prospect’ Claimed the Sandy Hook Shooting Didn’t Happen

CNN’s Jake Tapper reviewed the latest drama around the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is rumored to be seriously considering Aaron Rodgers to be his running mate.

The New York Jets quarterback was in the headlines on Wednesday after CNN reported that in 2013, he told the network’s Pamela Brown that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 children and six adults was staged. CNN reported Rodgers told another person that the victims “never existed” and “were all actors.”

On Thursday’s edition of The Lead, Tapper addressed the report, which had his and Brown’s bylines. The host relayed Rodgers’ response to the story.

While Rodgers’ did not explicitly deny the CNN report, he said he has “never been of the opinion that the events did not take place.”

Tapper then read a statement from a Kennedy spokesperson

“Mr. Kennedy believes the Sandy Hook shooting was a horrific tragedy,” it began. “The 20 children and 6 adults that died December 14, 2012 brought the entire country together in grief. Let us honor their memory.”

“This is where we are as a nation where we have, actually, as a subject for debate whether or not a vice presidential prospect thinks a massive shooting actually happened,” the host reacted. “Should RFK Jr. select Aaron Rodgers as his running mate – again, someone he describes as a battle-tested critical thinker – it might cost him. Mediaite is reporting the donors have voiced their discontent directly with the campaign, pledging to withdraw their support from Kennedy if he chooses, Rodgers in particular.”

Watch above via CNN.