CNN lobs softballs at Biden, Harris during town hall appearance
'The Five' react to mainstream media's disparate treatment of Democrats, President Trump
CNN anchor Jake Tapper appears to have had a sudden change of heart about the seriousness of the potential impropriety of the Biden family's business ties after previously dismissing the Hunter Biden controversy that emerged in the final weeks of the presidential election.
During his interview on Thursday with President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris, Tapper mentioned how Harris' husband, incoming Second Gentlemen Doug Emhoff, was leaving his law firm to avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest ahead of the new administration and quickly pivoted to the president-elect's own potential concerns.
"When your son came under scrutiny during the campaign, you vowed 'No one in my family or associated with me will be involved in any foreign operations whatsoever. Period. End of story,'" Tapper began the exchange. "Will your brothers, will your son take leave from any business interests, not just foreign but any business interests, that might create any even an appearance of impropriety?"
"My son, my family will not be involved in any business, any enterprise that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict with an appropriate distance from the presidency and government," Biden responded.
Tapper quickly moved on to another topic without any follow-up questions.
However, CNN's most prominent anchor was quick to reject the explosive reporting from The New York Post that shed light on Hunter Biden's questionable foreign business dealings before and after his father was in office as vice president.
"The rightwing is going crazy with all sorts of allegations about Biden and his family. Too disgusting to even repeat here," Tapper said during a panel discussion on Oct 22. "I mean, some of the ones I've seen from the president's son and some of the president's supporters are just wildly unhinged."
But now, weeks after the presidential election as Biden prepares to become the 46th president, the subject of the Biden family's business ties appears to be fair game to Tapper.
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Even Tapper's colleague Don Lemon appeared surprised that the subject was mentioned following the interview.
On Wednesday, Project Veritas released recordings of CNN company conference calls that confirmed suspicions of the network's concerted efforts to suppress the Hunter Biden story that was damaging to the Biden campaign after critics observed a complete blackout of any coverage of the bombshell reporting.
"Obviously, we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Hunter Biden," CNN Political Director David Chalian is heard saying during a conference call on Oct. 14, the same day the Post released its first reports on Hunter Biden's emails. Chalian later insisted the report was "giving its marching orders" to the "rightwing echo chamber about what to talk about today."
Chalian, who also serves as a vice president, continued, "Obviously, Hunter Biden's lawyer is quoted in the New York Post piece and we'll just continue to report out this is the very stuff that the president was impeached over, this is the stuff that Senate Committees looked at and found nothing wrong in Joe Biden's interactions with Ukrainians and now having an email that perhaps there was a meeting with someone from Burisma it seems. Rudy Giuliani's sort of 'dream-o-vision' of how to throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign."
On the Oct. 23 call, the day after the final presidential debate where President Trump hammered Biden over the recent revelations involving his son, CNN President Jeff Zucker referred to the story as a "rabbit hole" that "I don't think anybody outside of that [rightwing media] world understood last night" and later suggested the Wall Street Journal's reporting definitively proves Biden had "no role" in his son's business dealings with China as a reason for CNN not to pursue the story itself.
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Zucker appeared to allude to the Hunter Biden email scandal in an Oct. 16 conference call released by Project Veritas on Tuesday.
"The Trump media, you know, moves immediately from -- OK, well, never mind -- the unmasking was, you know, found to be completely nonsensical, to the latest alleged scandal and expects everybody to just follow suit," Zucker told his staff. "So, I don't think that we should be repeating unsubstantiated smears just because the right-wing media suggests that we should."
"The unmasking" referenced by Zucker referred to the controversy involving top Obama administration officials, including now-President-elect Biden, requesting to know the identity of then-Trump national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn during the transition period following the 2016 election
Zucker's message appeared to have resonated with his star anchor, who the following week said the Hunter Biden allegations were "too disgusting" to repeat on-air.
CNN did not respond to Fox News' multiple requests for comment.