Jake Tapper used Donald Trump’s rally behavior against him to disprove his campaign’s claim that the former president hasn’t mocked President Joe Biden’s stutter.
The CNN host, during Thursday’s edition of “The Lead,” pointed to a story in The Washington Post about the president embracing stuttering “to sell himself as the candidate of compassion” while Trump has “parodied the purported stammer.”
Jason Miller, senior adviser for the Trump campaign, told the Post that Trump “has never mocked Joe Biden’s speech impediment,” claiming that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee has instead called out Biden as a “cognitively impaired, low-IQ individual.”
Tapper used a “little fact check” to spoil Miller’s big claim by playing a clip of Trump mocking Biden’s stutter at an Iowa rally in January.
“Why even deny it when it’s so — I mean, it just doesn’t matter anymore. You can lie about anything?” Tapper asked.
Alice Stewart, a CNN conservative commentator, and GOP strategist called it “stupid” to deny Trump’s attacks.
“News flash: Whenever you say something in front of cameras, people can use that video against you if you try to deny saying something,” she said.
Trump recently faced criticism for poking fun at Biden’s stutter at a campaign rally in Georgia earlier this month.
The moment delighted his supporters, whereas stuttering advocates such as Maya Chupkov told Politico that watching the Trump clip brought her “back to the bullying days.”
Paul Begala, a Democratic commentator for CNN and ex-Clinton adviser, noted that the former president has previously mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability as well as the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) over injuries he sustained while in the military.
Begala said, “Again, this is what Trump does.”
H/T: Mediaite