Jake Tapper Scorches House Republican With 1 Brutal Question On Hellish Speaker Race

Jake Tapper didn’t hold back Sunday as he hit Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) with a harsh question on the state of the House GOP amid its speaker stalemate.

“I hope you don’t take this personally, but do you guys have any idea how clownish you look?” Tapper asked Turner on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Well, you know, Jake, I’m very fond of saying that Congress is a lot like high school but even more so,” Turner replied. “So hopefully we’ll get past this.”

The CNN anchor has dropped sharp words for House Republicans in recent days as they enter another week without a leader in the chamber. Earlier this month, eight Republicans and Democrats voted to oust of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

There are nine candidates in the running for the speaker’s gavel following Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) abandoning his bid for the post last week.

Earlier in his interview with Turner, Tapper referred to the speaker candidates before asking if a candidate could get the necessary 217 votes from the 221-member House GOP conference.

Turner said that it would be “very difficult” for a candidate to get 217 votes, comparing the task to “the sort of Rubik’s Cube of the answer to all of this.”