South Carolina newspaper The State has gotten a hold of email correspondence sent to Gov. Mark Sanford‘s communications director, Joel Sawyer, by reporters in the run-up to the revelation of Sanford’s extramarital tango. Politico’s Michael Calderone notes one of the more surprising emails was sent by ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper:
ABC’s Jake Tapper sent an email to Sawyer with the subject heading, “NBC spot was slimy.” There, Tapper wrote: “For the record, I think the TODAY show spot was pretty insulting…”
And Tapper responded in an email to POLITICO:
Advertisement“Busted. In retrospect, the story I was referring to wasn’t slimy enough — at that moment the only ones who knew of the governor’s affair were Sanford, his wife, his mistress, and the State newspaper. But I shouldn’t have said that, and I’ll try to leave the media criticism to others from now on.”
We hear Tapper reached out to Today show EP Jim Bell and to David Gregory, whose Tweet he forwarded to Sawyer, to set things straight. “Have apologized to @davidgregory Bad form on my part,” Tapper tweeted this morning.
Yesterday, Mediaite reported that Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins also emailed Sawyer. CBS’ Harry Smith also reached out, as did staffers from CNN’s “American Morning.” So for some good Wednesday morning reading, check out the emails below:
• Jake Tapper’s first email (part 1)