CNN’s Jake Tapper appeared on Hugh Hewitt‘s radio show Tuesday and gave his take on the partisan rhetoric that has taken place during the government shutdown.
According to Tapper, the Republicans have been less over-the-top insults than their Democratic opponents.
Below is a transcript of Hewitt and Tapper’s exchange:
HUGH HEWITT: Now Jake Tapper, first question, do you think the President and the Democrats’ rhetoric is qualitatively different than the Speaker and the Republicans’ rhetoric?
JAKE TAPPER : Well, I haven’t heard the Republicans, we’re just talking about insults now, not anything else. I haven’t heard Republicans comparing the Democrats to suicide bombers or to kidnappers or to arsonists. But it’s possible that I’m not paying close enough attention.
HEWITT: I don’t think I’ve heard it, either. I think the only tough talk from the Republicans has been against Republicans. And I’m curious if you think that is making it more difficult to reach a compromise here, the rhetoric?
TAPPER: Probably, but you know, I mean to be fair to the Democrats here, there has been years of rhetoric of Obama is not from the United States, and he is a socialist, and he is…and so I might be grandfathering in the language that I’ve been hearing for years from the likes of Congressman Broun of Georgia and others, where it’s just so over the top, I don’t even notice it, necessarily, anymore, because he constantly says that Obama and Obamacare and the Democrats are destroying America or taking down America. None of it is helpful. And I know you paid attention when Dan Pfeiffer, the White House advisor was on my show…
HEWITT: Right.
TAPPER: And I think had a hat trick of comparing the Republicans to suicide bombers, arsonists and kidnappers all in one interview…
HEWITT: Right.
TAPPER: …which was quite an accomplishment.