CNN anchor Jake Tapper was caught on a hot mic during the network’s special Aug. 15 coverage of President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Tapper, who usually hosts his two-hour program “The Lead” from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST from Washington, D.C., was live Friday in Alaska, when his colleague Anderson Cooper attempted to throw it back to him.
“I’m fine, just give me my show back,” Tapper said, seemingly expressing his frustration while failing to realize he was live. The hot mic moment was shared on X by conservative NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck.
A smiling Cooper then quipped, “Show’s back!”
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After the awkward exchange, Tapper welcomed Sen. Adam Schiff to the show, but the California Democrat couldn’t hear the CNN host. “I think I lost you,” Schiff said.
Tapper then told the audience that “we’re having real comms problems today. I’m sorry about that. If anybody can hear me, let’s go throw it back to New York.”
At that point, Cooper again took over, saying “Okay, Jake, thanks very much.”
USA TODAY reached out to reps for Cooper, Tapper and CNN for comment.
At the Alaska summit, Trump and Putin failed to achieve a major breakthrough in peace negotiations over Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Tapper occasionally becomes frustrated during on-air coverage. In 2020, Tapper played Lara Trump’s remarks at a “Women for Trump” 2020 campaign event about former President Joe Biden during her interview on “State of the Union.”
“Every time he comes on stage and they turn to him, I’m like: ‘Joe, can you get it out. Let’s get the words out,'” Trump said. Tapper then asked, “How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?”
Trump then responded that she did not know Biden had a stutter, which was a well-documented disability of the then-presidential candidate.
“I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline. That’s what I’m referring to,” Trump said.
Tapper then shut down the interview, telling Trump that she had “absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline.” In May, Tapper revealed that he had apologized to Trump about the incident.
That same month, Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson of Axios released a controversial book “Original Sin” that explored the physical and cognitive decline of Biden during his presidency.
The book received significant backlash from certain liberal and center corners of the political spectrum.
Contributing: James Powel
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