CNN's Jake Tapper offered a surprise defense of Donald Trump after the president appeared to doze off several times during his final Cabinet meeting of the year on Tuesday.
Tapper, 56, broached the subject on Tuesday's episode of The Lead, landing some shots on the commander in chief while acknowledging that his age and late-night habits may have played a role.
'Now we should say if he was falling asleep, maybe he was a bit tired from all that time online last night where he was re-Truthing quite a bit between 7:20pm and midnight, 158 posts and reposts to be exact, ranging from criticisms of Democrats to criticisms of immigrants to conspiracy theories from Alex Jones,' he stated.
Guest and former Trump aide Mike Dubke jokingly asked whether the president had closed his eyes at the Cabinet meeting while 'listening intently,' earning a laugh from fellow political commentator Xochitl Hinojosa.
Tapper then mimicked Trump's demeanor - and apparent drowsiness - by closing his eyes.
'Does that what I look like? Does it look like I'm listening intently?' he said, before bizarrely going to bat for Trump.
'Look, he’s 79 years old. I mean, like, this is not abnormal for a 79-year-old to be sleepy.'
Dubke - who resigned as White House communications director three months after being appointed by Trump in 2017 - pointed out that the president has not typically needed much sleep in the past.
CNN's Jake Tapper offered a surprise defense of Donald Trump after the president appeared to doze off several times during his final Cabinet meeting of the year on Tuesday
'I- I will say this. And this is from my personal experience with the president. He is abnormal in the- in the lack of sleep that he needs,' he said, later mentioning his 'supernatural lack of sleep ability.'
'I mean, the fact that you- when was the last tweet of his, 158? Probably something like 2am in the morning. 'This guy is awake all the time.'
Dubke concluded by saying saying that he was 'not trying to pull this Joe Biden.'
'I was just going to say,' Hinjosa, jumped in, 'you sound a lot like Joe Biden’s White House staff.'
She added later that aging 'is part of the natural process' and 'isn’t offensive.'
'This is what happens when you’re 80 years old,' Hinjosa said. 'And so he will be the oldest president when he leaves office. And I think you’re now seeing signs of that, right?'
Tapper replied with a curt 'Yes,' before moving onto the next segment.
A Washington Post analysis of the Cabinet meeting noted that Trump's eyes were closed for a total of nearly six minutes across nine separate instances.
Tapper co-wrote a book in May about what he framed as a cover-up of then-President Joe Biden's cognitive decline by high-ranking Democrats during his days in office.
The meeting went on for over two hours and was streamed live on CNN at 12pm
Tapper told panelists Xochitl Hinojosa and Mike Dubke that 'maybe he was a bit tired from all that time online last night, where he was re-Truthing quite a bit between 7:20pm and midnight, 158 posts and reposts to be exact'
Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson painted themselves and other journalists as victims.
He admitted to not fully reporting on the dynamic during an interview with Megyn Kelly that month.
He also claimed that 'conservative media was correct' in how it handled the story.
Tapper's book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, became a New York Times bestseller.
