CNN’s Jake Tapper was called out by Megyn Kelly on Tuesday. At one point during her interview, she focused on the Biden White House’s ‘cheap fakes’ narrative and how Tapper dutifully pushed it even though average Americans and conservative media saw it was all lies. In the end, Tapper relented and admitted that conservative media were right all along.
Here’s a transcript of their conversation. (READ)
@MegynKelly calls out CNN and @JakeTapper for parroting the Biden White House lie about "cheap fakes" in June 2024 ahead of the debate. Tapper admits he toned down his coverage of both candidates so neither would drop out...
Kelly: “[L]eading up to the debate, which you anchored that June 27 debate, 2024, there was a ton of news leading into that debate in that month —”
Tapper: “Mmmhmm.”
Kelly: “— and we look back at your coverage and found that you ignored it. Not only did you ignore the Jackie Walorski moment when you had him 13 days later, but you ignored the freeze up that he had at the Juneteenth celebration. You ignored what happened to the G7 when he wandered off in Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, had to go find him. You ignored —”
Tapper: “Megyn!”
Kelly: “— the freeze up at the George Clooney-LA fundraiser. You didn't cover it. You only covered it after the debate after George Clooney wrote his op-ed. Jake, nobody made you do that. There — there was ---- your network, at every turn, was telling us those were ‘cheap fakes,’ and you're not combating that narrative. You were — at — CNN was actively misleading us on what our very eyes were showing us. That's the truth. That's the record.”
Tapper: “I will acknowledge that after I was named moderator, co-moderator of the debate. I tried to make sure that my coverage was fairly vanilla, both about Trump and about Biden because I just wanted to get to the debate and, you know, the Biden people and the Trump people. I'm kind of frankly surprised that either one of them agreed to have me as a moderator, because both sides disliked me so much. But yeah, I remember that — that moment, and I remember that moment, the glitch at the immigration event and not getting much attention outside of conservative media at all. And Alex and I are here to say the conservative media was right and conservative media was correct and that there should be a lot of soul-searching, not just among me, but among the legacy media to begin with, all of us, for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently 100 percent. So, I mean, I'm not here to defend coverage that I've already acknowledged. I wish I could do differently.”
Kelly: “Mmhmm.”
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Here’s the video of their full exchange. (WATCH)
.@MegynKelly calls out CNN and @JakeTapper for parroting the Biden White House lie about "cheap fakes" in June 2024 ahead of the debate. Tapper admits he toned down his coverage of both candidates so neither would drop out...
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 20, 2025
Kelly: “[L]eading up to the debate, which you… pic.twitter.com/Dbxic3Mfld
Yes, we’re as shocked as you are at that last bit.
But observant commenters say it reveals more than Tapper probably intended it to.
CNN’S JAKE TAPPER: "Alex & I are here to say the conservative media was right & conservative media was correct & that there should be a lot of soul searching, not just among me, but among the legacy media."
— Obeydul Haque (@obeydulX) May 20, 2025
So "conservative media" implies that Jake's media is "liberal media"
— Saint QB (@ManweOfWar71) May 20, 2025
Cool to get that out there
Exactly
— HarryLegend (@harrylegend33) May 21, 2025
Glad, we weren’t the only ones that picked up on that.
It’s amazing how all this embarrassment and national destruction could have been avoided if Tapper and his fellow ‘journalists’ had just practiced actual journalism.
Jake is grifting. @CNN was the Cover-Upper In Chief, and Tapper, allegedly the top 'journalist' at the network, never wavered from protecting the left. He never grew a spine to ask any question with journalistic integrity.
— wfee (@wfee1) May 20, 2025
He claimed he interviewed 200 Dems after the election and most on the record and named…… how come he never had any of them talk about it on his show? He could have interviewed them on his TV show and write more in detail for the book in parallel…..
— Q (@Initial__Q) May 21, 2025
Woodward & Bernstein didn’t sit on their findings to craft a polished narrative for post-presidency book deals. They did real-time, investigative journalism—holding power accountable as events unfolded. The public deserves truth in the moment, not a retrospective boxed set
— MaxLemon (@maxsuprise) May 21, 2025
That would have required journalism. But money is all that matters now to these ‘journalists.’ That, and the hope we will thank and praise them for admitting what was in front of their faces for several years.
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