‘You’re Also Old’: Jake Tapper’s Interview With Mom of Hamas Hostage Takes Unexpected Turn
Broadly speaking, interviews with relatives whose loved ones are being held hostage do not produce funny moments – but here we are.
On Monday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, Jake Tapper spoke with Rachel Goldberg, whose son was wounded and abducted during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages.
Goldberg’s son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, had his arm blown off by Hamas terrorists at a music festival and was subsequently taken hostage. She recently met with Elon Musk, who was in Israel after endorsing an anti-Semitic tweet claiming that Jews are responsible for “hatred against Whites” and want them replaced by “hordes of minorities.”
As grim as all that is, Goldberg is maintaining an admirable disposition. She told Tapper that rather been be saddened that her son has not been among those hostages who have been released so far, she is actually encouraged that at least some of them have been freed. She also told him he’s old:
TAPPER: Rachel, you obviously have much bigger concerns than just how nasty social media can be. But obviously, Twitter is a cesspool, or X I guess it’s called now. And Elon Musk, quite frankly, hasn’t exactly been helpful when it comes to that. And I’m just wondering, especially when it comes to anti-Semitism, not to mention anti-Muslim sentiment and all sorts of bigotry. I don’t know if any of that came up today because obviously, you have much bigger serious life-and-death concerns having to do with your son. Did it come up?
GOLDBERG: It didn’t come up. And to be honest with you, certainly in the last 52 days, I personally have not followed news, haven’t been reading newspapers.
TAPPER: I wouldn’t either.
GOLDBERG: And I also– and you know what? I’m a little bit old, so like, I’m not a Twitter or X person.
TAPPER: Rachel, we’re the exact same age. Rachel, we are the exact same age. Cut it out.
GOLDBERG: You’re also old, ok? In fact, don’t throw me under the bus, Jake, ’cause you’re six months older than I am.
Tapper is 54 years old.
The CNN host went on to predict Goldberg’s son will be returned and that he would throw a party for the family.
