Host of The Lead and State of the Union, CNN’s Jake Tapper made an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night, chatting with a man he has known going back to The Daily Show days. Colbert was also one of Tapper’s first guests on The Lead.
“We have known each other for 13 years,” said Colbert. “We met on the campaign trail in Iowa when I was on The Daily Show. I was trying to interview Howard Dean, and I only got in one question over a 2-day span: ‘What sound does a cow make?’ Dean did this crazy two-minute answer, and I said: ‘The answer is moo.’ Then, I turn around and I hear a voice from down the hallway go: ‘Well, you got more than I did,’ and that was you.”
“We were both two young, hungry correspondents desperately trying to get on-air,” said Tapper.
Colbert brought up the Kellyanne Conway interview, and asked Tapper if he thinks the network should change its tone now that Trump is the president, per Conway’s request.
“Our coverage follows his lead,” said Tapper. “I think that if he pivoted as he claimed he would and was more presidential, not sending out nasty tweets about Nordstrom or judges or not go to the National Prayer Breakfast and talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger ratings, then I would be delighted, frankly, to cover the policies more. But there’s this whole other thing going on with this White House.”
Colbert then asked Tapper what it’s like over at CNN knowing that the president loathes his network?
“I don’t think anybody cares,” said Tapper, to a rousing round of applause from the audience.
But similar to what Anderson Cooper said on Seth Meyers the other night, Tapper made clear that he had differences with the Obama administration as well. “The job is to not be liked,” said Tapper. “My job is to tell the truth, to deliver the facts and to hold people accountable.”