Has Jake Tapper addressed his messaging problem?

Who knew what about Joe Biden’s mental state and when did they know it? That question has driven a lot of Washington chatter this week, thanks to the upcoming release of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Ex-Biden aides, cabinet secretaries and 2028 potentials have been under scrutiny – but so have the book’s authors. Tapper has gone so far as to retain top crisis PR agent Risa Heller, the Breaker newsletter reports. Heller’s clients have included Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents.

Why does the CNN anchor find himself in such esteemed company in the week of his book launch? There are a number of possibilities: Tapper has been accused of duplicity for not adequately reporting on the former president’s condition while Biden was running and in office – one well-documented example being his push-back on Lara Trump in October 2020. Trump mentioned Biden’s cognitive decline on Tapper’s show, to which the host replied, “You are mocking his stutter” and said she had “absolutely no standing” to make such a diagnosis. But the ferocity of the media broadsides against Tapper may have other foundations. The anchor established a years-long habit of messaging pundits and reporters who criticize him or his network on Twitter. “He’s inveterate,” a journalist with decades of experience who has worked with Tapper told Cockburn.

Your correspondent fired off a few texts Thursday to ask writers and commentators if they’d ever received a snotty DM from Tapper. He got five “yes”s in as many minutes.

“He accused me of inciting a violent mob against him – and all I did was fact-check one of his tweets,” one conservative writer told Cockburn.

Over the years, Tapper has taken issue with people of all political stripes. Last September when former Bernie Sanders advisor Matt Duss accused Tapper of anti-Palestinian bias, Tapper DM’d him, “At least be man enough to tag me with your lies, matt.” Duss screenshotted the message and tweeted it, tagging the anchor.

“Jake Tapper is known as one of the most thin-skinned little man-babies in Washington, and it takes a lot of work to build that kind of reputation in a city full of thin-skinned little man-babies,” Duss told Cockburn.

With Heller’s help, might Tapper undergo a conversion? “If he wants to change his reputation, he just needs to start behaving better, not hire a PR firm,” Duss said. “If he truly is interested in turning over a new leaf, I will welcome it.”

“I think he’s found a convenient dose of humility,” the conservative writer said. “Here’s hoping that remains when the book sales stop.”

Stephen L. Miller, a Spectator contributor on the media beat, said, “Jake Tapper has an enormous platform online and on CNN. If he truly has turned a corner he could start by using that platform to invite the people who were right about Joe Biden’s condition going back to the 2020 campaign. He should platform those on the political right who always noticed Biden’s decline. Until he does that, this is all just a performance.”

One connected media professional described Tapper as “universally disliked – even within CNN” and asked Cockburn, “have you spoken to anyone who’d defend him?” He hasn’t – but his DMs are open!

Perhaps the only popularity contest that Tapper cares about winning is next week’s New York Times Bestsellers’ List.

On our radar

SHE SELLS SEASHELLS Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that former FBI director James Comey “should be behind bars” for posting a photo on Instagram in which shells on a beach are arranged to display the numbers “86 47” – meaning “get rid of Trump.”

BELOW DECK: GULF OF AMERICA The Department of Homeland Security is in early discussions with a production company about a reality show in which immigrants compete to earn American citizenship.

SORRY KANYE “I think we did a little more to win the war than France,” President Trump told troops in Qatar Thursday, regarding World War Two. “When Hitler made his speech at the Eiffel Tower I would say that was not ideal.”

Hanna Trudo’s bags of experience

Hanna Trudo is fighting fires. The 35-year-old has left her career as a correspondent for the Hill – in which she once specialized in covering progressive Democrats – to explore a run as a progressive Democrat in her home state of New Hampshire. “I’ve been a lifelong Democrat,” she told Fox News Digital today, “from a working class family.” She describes her bias as “toward the working-class issues.”

Step forward the Ruthless Podcast, who on Thursday broadcast a deluge of screenshots from Trudo’s Instagram and profile on Luxy, an “upscale” dating app that claims 41 percent of its members have a verified income of over €1 million. The hosts – who are conservative former staffers and consultants – scrutinize a March 2022 Instagram screenshot in which Trudo is attempting to sell her Ferrari as she relocates it from Miami to DC. Cohost Josh Holmes characterizes the apparent opulence as “a jarring deviation from the working-class component.” They also pore over couply photos of Trudo and a mystery man who she describes as “the love of my life.” “I would point out, it just has to be said, this man looks a lot older than her,” says cohost Michael Duncan. How Gen Z of the Ruthless gang to be scandalized by an age-gap romance!

“To young (esp single) women who are thinking about running for office: we know how this goes,” Trudo posted on X this morning. “I reached out to @RuthlessPodcast about policies that impacted my family growing up here in NH. They chose the personal attacks on my looks, style, dating.”

The podcasters teased more to come – and Cockburn has a guess as to what they might talking about. Your correspondent has seen a screenshot from Trudo’s Instagram in which she thanks her beau for buying her “20 Birkins and Kelly’s in less than one year.” If we are being charitable, that’s around $160,000 worth of bags in one photo. In other words, that’s around two and a half times the men’s median salary in her congressional district.

A number of observers might think that Trudo’s miscalculation is running for office in the first place: with office comes scrutiny. Cockburn has a different view. Promoting her family’s working-class bona fides is the misstep. In an era when the Obamas have mansions in Kalorama, Martha’s Vineyard and Hawai’i, Gavin Newsom dines at the French Laundry and “Middle-Class Joe” Biden is seeking $300,000 for each speaking gig, why bother pretending that the Democrats have a monopoly on working class votes? If anything, Trudo should have leaned into her Ferraris and finery to prove she belongs among her Democratic peers. What could undermine the “Golden Age of Trump” trope more than having a nicer purse than any of his family members?

Trudo seems to be changing tack. “Sorry gentlemen, I like fashion AND Medicare for All! $15 minimum wage,” she tweeted a couple of hours ago. “You can try and shame me into not running for #NH1 because you hate progressives, but not for being a fabulous woman. Live Free or Die”

Secure the bag, sister!

How it started > how it’s going

Sunday
“It’s just good that America’s got a health secretary that actually looks healthy, you know?”

– A friend to Cockburn at a wedding

Monday
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went for a swim in Rock Creek yesterday. Health officials typically advise against swimming in that DC waterway, because sewage from the city’s aging system flows into it. The problem is particularly bad after rains, but even during dry spells, the bacteria count in Rock Creek is alarmingly high.”

– Andrew Beaujon, Washingtonian

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