House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) released emails on Friday showing CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly tried to book her on his show after the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot—and as recently as May of this year. The emails are relevant because they show Tapper tried to get Stefanik on his show after the timeframe in which, in reports this week, he said he’s refused to allow Republicans who voted to challenge the electoral college certification on Jan. 6 airtime on his show.
Stefanik tweeted, “Shot….. chaser, chaser, chaser.”
She then added Jake Tapper, who claims to have not invited certain Republicans on his show, should “drink up” since his ratings are plummeting.
The first image shows a screenshot of the Politico Playbook, where Tapper is engaging in the practice of not inviting Republicans on his show who “push election fraud” since January 6, because he does not “want to deal with it.” The Playbook also pointed out Tapper made the point to his audience: If they’re willing to lie about the election, what else are they willing to lie about?
The Republican conference chair shared three screenshots of emails from CNN, where she was invited onto Tapper’s show.
The first email shown is from May 4, which displays the person’s title as a Senior Planning Producer and Senior Editorial Producer from CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper. The body of the email says, “Hope you’re doing well! Wanted to check in to see if the Congresswoman might be available to join Jake a day this week in the 4-6pm hour.”
The person who wrote the email added, “Happy to get her on the phone with Jake prior to committing.”
Another email was from May 5, to Stefanik’s office. The email reads, “Good morning ladies, Would the Congresswoman have any availability to join Jake Tapper hosting State of the Union this Sunday morning?”
The next email is also from May 5, eight minutes after the previous email. The email is also from an address ending in “@cnn.com,” which asked the Congresswoman’s office again to see if they could keep the network posted if Stefanik is “doing anything Sunday, even if it’s for a different show?” The email continued, “Of course we’d love to make it ours though! ;)”
On the same thread of emails, the person was “checking back.” to see if Stefanik was free that Sunday. The email reads, “Hope you don’t mind me checking back to see if you think the Congresswoman might go out for national TV at all Sunday morning?”
Tapper, in a tweet Friday night, blamed his bookers for trying to schedule Republicans on his show. Tapper said if the bookers had gone to him, with any one of the “Election Liar[s]” he would have said no.