CNN’s Jake Tapper: Trump’s SOTU Had ‘Lovely’ Moments; ‘Never Seen Anything’ like It

CNN’s The Lead host Jake Tapper on Tuesday said President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address had several “lovely” moments and noted that he had “never seen anything” like it.

A partial transcript is as follows: 

WOLF BLITZER: It was awkward at the very beginning, Jake. It looked like Nancy Pelosi was ready to shake [President Trump’s] hand. He did not respond. In the very end, it looked like she was sort of ripping up the advanced copy of the speech he had presented.

JAKE TAPPER: Yeah, she went to shake his hand. Whether he snubbed her or didn’t see, he didn’t recuperate. Normally, the speaker of the House will say, “To the member of Congress, to the joint session, it is my high honor and distinct pleasure to introduce the president of the United States.” Speaker Pelosi just said, “Members of Congress, I introduce the President of the United States.” She did not include the “high honor and distinct pleasure,” which was also rather notable.

It really was striking for a number of reasons, Wolf. One of these, while we are used to since the days of Ronald Reagan, a president going to the people in the first lady’s box to illustrate some sort of policy point or some sort of American note, whether it’s honor troops or talking about education, we’ve never seen … a scholarship given, which is what the president did with the young girl from Philadelphia. We’ve seen the type of thing where a war hero like Tuskegee Airman Gen. McGee. That was a lovely moment. To have a 100-year-old Tuskegee Airman there with his grandson, who wants to be in the Space Force. President Trump telling a little girl that she’s going to get a scholarship, President Trump announcing that there is a solider coming home and reuniting with his wife and children, we’ve never seen anything like that before.