In the fallout of newly-seated Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar’s tweet that many of both the right and left took as anti-Semitic, President Donald Trump took the time Tuesday to call on the Congresswoman to resign, calling her apology for the tweet “lame” and insisting that her “hate” was deep-seated.
It was a moment of supreme irony for anyone who saw it, as Trump has (a) never apologized for anything offensive he’s ever said in his life and (b) is a horrible racist himself, in a way that is both vitriolic and unambiguous.
That irony was not lost on CNN’s Jake Tapper, who ran a tongue-in-cheek segment on his show The Lead with Jake Tapper today in which he recapped the controversy, then “accidentally” rolled tape not of Rep. Omar’s gaffe, but of the many, many (many) times that Trump has been publicly racist and explicitly anti-Semitic himself, including in the aftermath of the Charlottesville Nazi Rally of 2017 — where he specifically said that among those marching with the Nazis, white supremacists, alt-Right “Proud Boys,” and KKK members that day, there were “good people.”
This is the kind of journalism America needs more of: Striking, to the point, and pulling no punches when it comes to the President and his entire communications team’s effort to normalize his entirely abnormal behavior.
First Tapper set up the “control room error” segment by pointing out how Trump called for her resignation, a sentiment which was echoed by Vice President Mike Pence, who said that anyone engaging in this sort of behavior should “face consequences for their words.” Then he played Donald Trump’s words before a roomful of Jewish Republicans who he accused to their faces of buying politicians — the same thing that Rep. Omar was said to have done.
The reel that followed covered Trump’s “accidental” anti-Semitic tweet about Hillary Clinton from the presidential campaign, his comments about Charlottesville, footage of those same Nazis from Charlottesville marching with torches through the streets of that city chanting “Jews will not replace us,” and a tweet from just three months ago from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy accusing prominent Jews of buying elections.
In short, this epic supercut should put to rest any Republican crocodile tears about Rep. Omar’s tweet — which she has publicly apologized for, unlike any of the things shown in Tapper’s video.
Watch:
Featured image via screen capture
