CNN’s Tapper: Republicans Are Repeatedly Violating ‘Basic Decency’

On his show “State of the Union,” CNN anchor Jake Tapper declared that Republicans were repeatedly violating “basic decency.”

Referencing the shooting incident that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins involving Alec Baldwin on the set of the film ‘Rust,’ Tapper said, “There is something about our politics right now that is driving people away from our shared humanity. Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado apparently spent some time and did some digging and found a Baldwin tweet from 2014 about the hands up, don’t shoot, movement. Baldwin is, of course, not only progressive but very aggressive and outspoken about the liberal issue, including gun control. The Colorado congresswoman thought it was funny to exploit hands up, don’t shoot, to make a joke at the expense of Baldwin but really, more importantly, to make a joke at the expense of Halyna Hutchins and her husband Matthew and their son.”

Discussing Ohio Senate candidate J.D Vance, Tapper said, “Vance joking asked for Twitter to remove its ban on Donald Trump, because, quote, ‘We need Alec Baldwin tweets.’ In other words, Vance appears to be saying we need to see Donald Trump attack Baldwin hours after this tragedy at this moment to exploit this horror in which an innocent woman, mother, wife, artist was killed.”

He continued, “He did this, JD Vance, presumably because he thinks it will help him win supporters. He did it to win votes. In other words, the cruelty is a feature of his candidacy, not a bug. Vance is seemingly following the playbook of Donald Trump, whose response to the death of secretary Colin Powell a few days ago was to issue a statement attacking Powell, following similar attacks that he made against the late John McCain and the late John Dingell after they had died. Violations of basic decency, ones we see repeatedly with the Republican Party’s embrace of individuals such as congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, her reaction in 2018 to a deadly fire in the Western United States was to go on Facebook and speculate that wealthy Jewish Americans might be using lasers to cause the fires to make money somehow. A deranged anti-semitic conspiracy theory, nuts. One that was brought up by Congresswoman Liz Cheney when Marjorie Taylor Greene started berating Cheney on the House floor this week.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN