Jake Tapper (and co-author) Alex Thompson have been hawking their new book. Many including me see it as a hit-job on former President Joe Biden. Yes there are people including some Democrats that have no more shame than the average Republican who have piled on. However some have come to Biden’s defense but what’s interesting to me today is someone, in this case former DNC Chair Jamie Harrison pointing to specific passages in the book and stating in effect ‘Tapper made that up. I never said any such thing.’ Harrison had quite a bit to say about Tapper’s book so it will be interesting to see the reaction in the coming week.
I wrote recently Tapper had a meltdown at work over a particular moment where another CNN personality was chosen for a small gathering of reporters with Biden. Too many people were around for him to deny it, but more important is that Tapper was already upset because he felt he’d been ‘frozen out’ by Biden and his team for a while. With all the backstabbing we know actually did happen from Biden’s fellow Democrats I doubt he had much trouble collecting a bunch of off-the-record anecdotal bullshit. However having someone at Harrison’s level directly call out Tapper as a liar matters.
As this article from Raw Story tells us Former DNC Chair Harrison went beyond the topic of the current internal rift at the DNC. Since he was quoted in Tapper’s book he in fact had plenty to say and he didn’t pull punches:
“It says that you had an interaction with President Biden where he didn’t recognize you and you said to some other Democrat that wasn’t good, right? I heard that you said this didn’t happen, so did it happen or not?” Daniels prompted his guest.
“It was a bald-faced lie,” Harrison shot back. “I don’t know where the hell they got that from and I’ve told that to Alex. That is a bald-faced lie, and it frankly is pissing me off, excuse my language, that they continue to push it and say it.”
I wonder how Tapper will react if he goes on more news shows and gets hit with what Harrison has to say about him! Or others who have started to publicly call bullshit on his ‘reporting.’ Harrison wasn’t done. He went on to say he’d talked with with Biden adviser Jake Sullivan about something ‘that didn’t happen.’ He went on to talk about the George Clooney ‘incident’ and Obama having to ‘guide/support Biden off the stage:
“I’ve seen similar with [Biden adviser] Jake Sullivan saying that the situation that they talk about him did not happen.,” he added before recalling, “I know in terms of the [George] Clooney situation, I mean, there are some things that I can also share about that Clooney situation. You know, that part where they show Barack Obama holding on to Joe Biden’s arm and leading him off right in front of us? I went to my wife when I saw that that or heard about that in the book, and I said, ‘Wasn’t that where those three young, it was three young white men who was standing up yelling at Joe Biden about Palestine.”
“They were protesting right up front, and he was trying to listen to what they were saying and Obama grabbed his arm and pulled him away,” he added. “My wife said, ‘Yeah, I remember that, we were sitting right there in the audience.'”
I know a BFD was made about that and it continues to come up. You’d expect political opponents which should be limited to Republicans (not Biden’s fellow Democrats) to cherry pick and describe what’s noted above out of context. However, it’s the job of a journalist or at least a good one to provide just that – CONTEXT. Well, now you have it from someone credible who was right there painting the ‘big picture’ and that’s why I’m writing this. I want people who think as I do that Tapper is just a muck-raking a-hole out to make a buck off kicking a good and decent man and terrific President when he’s down to have facts and sources to counter Tapper’s bullshit.
The linked article concludes with Harrison saying as far as he’s concerned by using something made-up Tapper has lost all credibility. I suspect Tapper twisted or took other comments from others out of context. Or just made sh*t up like he did with Harrison knowing with his platform at CNN he could ruin their careers because they lacked the ‘juice’/’stature’ to do what Harrison and Sullivan have done. So my friends, I ask you to have Joe Biden’s back. If you find other news stories about others calling out Tapper and his book as the smear job it is speak up.
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A Newly coined MP is reported as having remarked to Winston Churchill when he won a comeback election to become Prime Minister again that it was “great to be able to look the enemy in the eye across the aisle in the Opposition benches”. Churchill’s response? “My dear boy, the enemy is behind you”.