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The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Jake Tapper's approach to Inauguration Day embodies a larger trend gripping the news media, which has tamped down its once aggressive posture toward Donald Trump.

Author

Oliver Darcy
January 20, 2025

Jake Tapper. (Screen grab via Snapstream)

Four years ago, moments after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Jake Tapper delivered a blistering sermon about Donald Trump's legacy live on CNN. He looked into the camera and bluntly described Trump's four years in office as a "time of cruelty," a "time when truth and fact were treated with disdain," and an "era of just plain meanness."

"It must be said, to paraphrase President Ford: For tens of millions of our fellow Americans, their long national nightmare is over," Tapper concluded, ending his unsparing mini-monologue.

That Jake Tapper was nowhere to be found on Monday as Trump was sworn back into office, becoming the 47th president of the United States. Instead…

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