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Jake Tapper: Press Was 'Very Friendly' to Obama, Many Drank 'The Kool-Aid'

AP
April 20, 2017

CNN host Jake Tapper accused the mainstream media of being too friendly with former President Barack Obama during his administration.

In a candid interview with GQ published Tuesday, Tapper acknowledged that after his tough interviews of administration figures like Kellyanne Conway, he picked up a following from many critics of President Donald Trump.

"It's nice to be recognized, but I also know that a lot of the people who are happy with me now are not going to be happy with me in four to eight years," he predicted.

Tapper said that he was just as tough on Obama, and earned his share of grief for it at the time.

"A lot of people sending me nice tweets today were cursing me when I was asking questions about Benghazi in 2012," he said.

"President Obama was not friendly to the press, but the press was very friendly to President Obama," Tapper told GQ. "I mean, President Obama did not like me, and I understand why. I was a pain in his ass and I didn't drink the Kool-Aid, and, you know, a lot of other people did."

Tapper has made similar indictments before, saying that the mainstream media had a "cultural bias" that was more complicated that just liberal bias.

"I think there are a lot of hard-working reporters in NYC and DC who have never fired a gun, or never worked a 9-5 manual labor job, or lived in the middle of the country, or worried about their next paycheck, or have anyone in their family who serves in the military," he said during a 2013 Reddit Ask Me Anything.

"Yes, I do think there is bias," he continued. "Reluctant to name names though because I try to be collegial."