Jake Tapper faces backlash over 'exclusive' interview with Trump

CNN's Jake Tapper is receiving flak online for touting an interview with Donald Trump as 'exclusive'. The Sunday Q&A was noticeably curt, contained virtually no detail, and was administered entirely via text, which Tapper still showed off on-screen.

Several State of the Union viewers looking to hear the latest on the status of the president's stalled ceasefire deal surrounding Hamas and the ongoing government shutdown were left frustrated. Some accused the host of misleading viewers with 'non-answers'. 'These answers remind me of the Twilight Zone episode with [William] Shatner and the cafe fortune telling machine. Vague, pre-printed, random one liners that could be answered to any question and apply,' wrote one user on X. 'This was NOT an “interview”. If you are just going to air his propaganda, have the human decency not to call it “exclusive interview,”' another added. 'Jake is the worst thing that ever happened to journalism,' scathed someone else.

A fourth noted how the texts - which contained only around 20 words or so - revealed nothing new aside from a promise of 'Complete Obliteration!' for Hamas if the terror group insists on staying in power. 'But we still don't know exactly what he meant by that,' the user wrote. 'Will forever be Tapper's personal legacy that he conducted a nat'l media blitz *concern* tour about a different president.' The host recently wrote a book about high-ranking Democrats' alleged campaign to cover up former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline during his days in office. He claimed that he and fellow journalists were duped in the process.

On Saturday, Tapper asked Trump via text whether he agreed with Sen. Lindsey Graham’s assessment over the weekend that Hamas had likely already rejected the terms of Trump's ceasefire plan. In on of five messages sent back, Trump told him: 'We will find out. Only time will tell!!!' The president also said he expects clarity 'soon' on whether Hamas is genuinely committed to peace. He added Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fully on-board with the plan - by answering yes to one of Tapper's questions. 'I HOPE! Working hard', he added when asked if the Arab League is also committed to his peace plan.

Other users who saw the interview questioned why the conservative conducted it over text in the first place, before honing in on recent rumors surrounding his health. One CNN viewer wrote: 'So Donald Trump is in such bad condition that he can’t even do a telephone interview? Since when did a [sic] actual reporter read an interview conducted via text messages on the air?' The theories stem from a lack of public appearances from the president and recent photographs showing bruising on his hands as well as swelling along his ankles. 'What proof is there that it was actually Trump who was texting with Tapper?' one X user wrote. 'Why wouldn't Trump do a phone interview? It could have been anyone responding to Jake's text questions. Is @jaketapper so naïve as to believe it was Trump?' another added.

On Monday, the 79-year-old raised alarms when he appeared to forget the year he was inaugurated for the first time, during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two leaders are engaged in talks with Hamas for a week. The group said Friday it would return all remaining hostages in Gaza, dead and alive, provided that 'appropriate field conditions' were met. Twenty hostages are thought to still be in the group's hands. Tapper's book about Biden's mental decline, meanwhile, came out last May, and it is already a New York Times bestseller.

During a conversation with Megyn Kelly that same day, Tapper admitted legacy media failed on covering Biden while conservative outlets, for more than a year, had it right that he was not fit for office. 'Knowing what I know now, obviously I feel tremendous humility about my coverage,' Tapper told Kelly, while also admitting that 'conservative media was correct' in how it handled the story.

Biden's mental state was 'not covered sufficiently' by stations like CNN, he said. 'Conservative media was right.' '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,' he continued. 'I wish I could do differently.' 'Conservative media absolutely has every right to say, "We were hip to this and the legacy media was not."' Egypt is set to host discussions meant to address Hamas's reservations over Trump's 20-point peace plan on Monday.