Is the CNN Anchor Auditioning for David Ellison?

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s ‘Ragebait.’

Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we dig into how Jake Tapper taking on Hasan Piker is making many wonder if the CNN anchor is pandering to his soon-to-be new bosses – or maybe he’s just trying to make his dad happy. Plus, Donald Trump thinks a Bush-era neocon is “Brilliant” and CBS News is doing all white.

Three weeks after drawing the ire of progressives for targeting Zohran Mamdani and his wife for hosting pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, CNN star Jake Tapper is once again under fire for taking aim at a left-wing critic of Israel and painting that person as antisemitic.

In this instance, Tapper’s target is popular progressive streamer Hasan Piker, who has suddenly found himself the focus of a cancellation campaign by centrist groups and right-wing Jewish publications looking to marginalize his influence in upcoming Democratic primaries.

Tapper has struggled with balancing his reporting on Israel and Palestine throughout the years. According to one former CNN colleague, the anchor – who is Jewish – would get calls from his father accusing him of “selling out” if he did anything too “Palestinian-friendly,” prompting Tapper to “do something that was kind of pro-Israel” shortly after.