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One Tuesday, President Obama was interviewed by ABC’s Jake Tapper. Tapper has been the only journalist in the White House Press Corp who has been willing to ask tough questions and his relationship with Press Secretary Jay Carney has been contentious at best. The White House has been curt not only with Tapper but any journalist who dares confront the administration about an ever growing list of scandals and failed policy decisions which is why the President’s decision to sit down with Tapper was so surprising. During the interview they discussed a variety of topics ranging from the economy and...

Tapper to Carney: "Do you not see at all... does the Administration not see at all how a president asserting that he has the right to kill an American citizen without due process and that he's not going to even explain why he thinks that he has that right, is troublesome to some people?"... http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=14642685

Finally the candy-pants White House press corps has come to its senses. Or at least a few members of that pro-Obama, softball-tossing group of so-called journalists have. Chief among them, and from traditional media, is ABC's Jake Tapper. I was amazed in early August when Tapper challenged the boyish-looking and smug presidential press secretary Jay Carney (who, ironically, is married to one of Tapper's fellow correspondents at ABC). Tapper up and asked what if any plans the president had to create jobs in America. It was part of a rare, unique barrage of questions toward Carney, and he was unable...

ABC News’ Jake Tapper does a gorgeous job of getting Press Secretary Jay Carney to admit that the President, despite his renewed protestations of “laser-like focus” on jobs, really isn’t doing all that much. As usual. [video] Wouldn’t it have been nice to see this level of interest by reporters way back in 2007 and 2008?

ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper appeared on the June 27 edition of Dennis Miller's radio show and conceded to a media blackout of Barack Obama's Medal of Honor gaffe. (The President confused a living recipient with the deceased Jared Monti who died in combat.) Tapper admitted that the President made "a big uncomfortable mistake." He added, "And I don't think that that got the same kind of coverage as, you know, when Sarah Palin got Paul Revere's ride-" Tapper's right. His own network, ABC, as well as CBS and NBC have skipped the Monti story. Tapper was away when...

ABC News White House reporter Jake Tapper wrote on Twitter this evening:"Talking to a Vietnam Navy Vet who says Swift Boat veterans now call themselves "River Boat" vets bc of 2004 campaign."Tapper did not explain what about the 2004 campaign--John Kerry or the group that challenged Kerry's Vietnam service record, the Swift Boats Vets and POWs for Truth--have caused them to change how they describe themselves.

TAPPER: GE paid no taxes last year. Given that the CEO of GE is the head of the president's competitiveness and jobs council, I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on their paying no taxes last year. CARNEY: I hope so. But the -- look, I -- Jake, I'll just tell you. TAPPER: Front page of The New York Times. CARNEY: But I -- but I can -- I've read the story. The president has said that he is committed to corporate tax reform. TAPPER: Does it bother him? CARNEY: I haven't spoken to the president about this. TAPPER: Why...

ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper wrote on Twitter about 40 minutes ago that the Obama administration is basically clueless as to the ramifications to the United States of the overthrow of the Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak."Also worth keeping in mind: cant find anyone in O admin who thinks whatever comes next will be better for U.S. interests than Mubarak was"This comes after Obama campaigned for Mubarak's overthrow.

ABC News White House Correspondent Jake Tapper attacked former President George W. Bush over his comments about being called a racist by rapper Kanye West over Hurricane Katrina.Writing on Twitter this afternoon while accompanying Barack Obama on his Asian trip, Tapper wrote a series of comments ripping Bush:President Bush says @KanyWest's comments were "one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency." Really?about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck imagine if in 5 years President Obama said one of the most disgusting moments of his presidency was when Glenn Beck called him racistabout 2 hours ago via TweetDeck the dead body...

ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper is spending the Friday night of Halloween weekend fighting off an attack by rabid moonbats angered by ABC's announcement that Big Government publisher Andrew Breitbart would be giving election night analysis on the network.Also appearing on ABC News will be the editor of Breitbart's Big Journalism, Dana Loesch.Tapper has alternated from jocularity, to polite referrals to ABC management, and from resignation to hostility in responding to the barrage of attacks by the moonbats.Tapper has spent the past three hours on Twitter battling the unhinged moonbats: And by the way I suggested that Mork...

During the course of questioning about the Obama administration's attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ABC News White House Correspondent Jake Tapper brought up the issue of Barack Obama refusing to release his long form Hawaii birth certificate in an interview today with senior White House adviser David Axelrod.Axelrod said that Obama's birth certificate "has been available to people."When Tapper followed up by asking if the long form version (aka the original with more information than the shorter publicly released version) has been released, Axelrod ducked the question with this bizarre rejoinder, “the only people who want to keep...

I hate vanities as much as the next person (seriesly), but FNC has been playing this headline all morning:POLL: MORE AMERICANS WRONGLY BELIEVE OBAMA MUSLIMThere is one word which does not belong in the above headline. Any guesses?For those who don't know, here's a flashback to 0's interview with George Stephanopoulis BEFORE the 2008 election.Obama slips up: "My Muslim Faith" Why is this video not played more ... on FNC or anywhere? If it was FNC wouldn't be using the word "wrongly" in the above headline.Honestly, how many of us who aren't Muslim accidentally say "My Muslim Faith..."

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. ---Thomas Jefferson, The United States Declaration of Independence. Oops! So what happened to all that discrimination and violation of civil rights that the Arizona immigration law was supposed to cause? Apparently the federal government decided it was so lacking that they didn't include it in their lawsuit against the Arizona law. Jake Tapper of ABC News notes the distinct lack of a discrimination charge...

Each week brings a new reminder of the mega mistake ABC News is about to make bringing in Christiane Amanpour as the host of “This Week.” Jake Tapper should have been the first choice and is demonstrarting weekly that he is the ideal choice. He keeps the show moving and is equally tough on representatives of both sides of the political spectrum. From a business standpoint, this past Sunday’s Tapper-hosted “This Week” was up 6% over a year ago in the 25-54 demographic all these shows chase. Tapper’s edition also was up a percentage point in overall audience from a...

Here is video from yesterday of Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher following BP CEO Tony Hayward and asking him if he knows what “the Government can do to you” if they do not comply with requirements being imposed on them. Hayward just ignored him and other reporters’ questions as he walked away from the White House. It is interesting to note that at the end of the video, you can see ABC News’ White House Correspondent Jake Tapper hollering after Hayward, “How’s that relative trickle going?”

TAPPER: Do you -- does the administration have an opinion on those in Wall Street who say that these -- this action you're proposing with derivatives would cost them hundreds of millions, if not a billion, dollars to take those steps? GIBBS: Well, look, again, I think that we have to figure out a way, and the president believes that bringing activities like this out of the dark and into an exchange that's regulated is a commonsense step that prevents the potential for a set of risky decisions to be made that -- that no one but taxpayers bear responsibility...

Some cross-network love for Jake Tapper on Morning Joe today, as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski expressed respect for ABC’s Jake Tapper, and disappointment that ABC News had not chosen him as permanent host of its Sunday talk show, This Week. Instead of elevating its home-grown talent, ABC has brought in Christiane Amanpour, late of CNN, to fill the vacancy created by George Stephanopoulos’ move to Good Morning America. Joe and Mika made their comments after rolling tape of Tapper asking Bill Clinton, in an interview aired yesterday, whether he should have been considered to fill the impending Supreme...

Jake Tapper gets visit by Chinese official while interviewing a student at Shanghai Town Hall, the official "commanded" them to stop the interview...(Video)

Here is video of an ABC News "Nightline" Interview President Obama did with correspondent Jake Tapper. Tapper asked Obama about the amendment to the House Health Care Bill that would prevent abortions being paid for. Obama said "this is a Health Care Bill, not an abortion bill." Obama also said that visiting Dover to honor the remains of servicemen and women who have been killed in action has a huge impact on him as he considers what to do going forward in Afghanistan. . . . (VIDEO)

NBC's "The Biggest Loser" is at the White House tonight. This is not a joke.

From this morning’s gaggle in White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ office: Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one – (Crosstalk) Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage....

Jake Tapper has distinguished himself within the White House press corps as someone consistently willing to pose probing questions to the president and his aides. But on today's Good Morning America, ABC's chief White House correspondent used a particularly unflattering metaphor for Rep. Joe Wilson and his decision to go on Fox News to defend himself. As a clip of Rep. Wilson on last night's Sean Hannity show rolled . . . JAKE TAPPER: Although Wilson apologized to the White House for his lack of civility, he quickly took to the limelight of conservative media like a moth to a...

Jake Tapper, reporting on Twitter a few hours ago:A source close to Jones re: 2002 doc: “Jones didn’t participate in and wasn’t part of this march at all..."..."He spent a very brief time on the board of the magazine War Times.” Says no other connections to Truther movement other than petition. about 3 hours ago from webTapper is referencing the Rense.com document from January 2002.Gateway Pundit broke the news about Rense.com this morning with a report that posited that Jones was an organizer of the 9/11 Truther march listed on the page.This writer took an alternate view that Jones was...

Here is video of Jake Tapper reporting on the future of a "public option" remaining in the Democrats' Health Care bill. The White House has sent out mixed signals over the weekend over whether they view the public option as a must to remain in the bill. But Obama is receiving pressure from Congressional Democrats, as well as other party leaders to keep the public option in the bill. . . . . (Watch Video)

Here is video of ABC's Jake Tapper questioning White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the use of "Nazi imagery" on both sides in the Government Health Care debate. He specifically mentioned Democrats who have referred to anti-ObamaCare protesters as "brownshirts" and accused them of bringing "Nazi swastikas" to events, despite the fact there is no proof whatsoever to that effect. Tapper also mentioned Rush Limbaugh having compared some of the tactics being used by Obama to the things Hitler did in the 1930's and 1940's. In fairness, Limbaugh had compared some of the propaganda and urging citizens to "snitch"...

This from Jake Tappers Abc Blog at 9:36p.m. Eastern time. Seven blue dog Democrats on the committee have said they can't vote for the Health Care bill in its current form. Some of these 7 met with Obama today at the White House for 2 1/2 hours,....This is bad news for Obama's Health Care Bill...story from Abcnewsblog

ABC News' Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report: The other day we heard a comment from a White House aide that never would have been uttered during the primaries or general election campaign. During a conference call in preparation for President Obama's trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said "the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to -- or before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world -- you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a...

First President in US History to Have Voted to Filibuster a Supreme Court Nominee Now Hopes for Clean Process May 30, 2009 1:08 PM President Obama's expressed hope today in his weekly address "that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this (Supreme Court nomination) process, and Congress, in the past" runs against another historical first for the 44th president: his unique role in history as the first US President to have ever voted to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee. So while there is little indication Republicans intend to filibuster President Obama's nominee for...

"We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95% of all working families," the president said Wednesday night. We wondered where the president got that from, given that the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 1.3 million jobs were lost in February and March, with dismal April numbers to come. We were told by a White House official that the Council of Economic Advisers estimated the effect of the stimulus bill on employment in two ways: One was to prorate the original quarterly estimates...

Surely one of the worst jobs in Washington is that of cleaning up after the Human Gaffe Machine, AKA Joe Biden . . . On shovel duty today at the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs made a laughingstock of himself as he asserted what Biden “meant to say” regarding swine flu. The press corps didn’t merely titter at Gibbs’ travails. They outright laughed in his face at the press sec’s tortured attempt at vice-presidential revisionism. View video here.

ABC's Jake Tapper questioned Gibbs why the Obama administration was making a large deal over saving $100 million in his proposed budget when the administration pooh-poohed $8 billion in an appropriations bill several weeks ago. (see video by following link)

The Bush administration got excoriated by the Left for its expansive use of the state-secrets doctrine. Barack Obama and other Democratic presidential hopefuls pounded Bush for its use. In fact, that was one of the principal components of Hope and Change — a shift away from secrecy and back to the “rule of law,” although no one has shown how Bush actually broke any laws in the first place. Apparently, Obama agrees, and as Jake Tapper reports, has decided to expand the Bush practice on state secrets:

On 'State Secrets,' Meet Barack W. Obama April 10, 2009 9:20 AM In February, President Obama's Justice Department quietly argued in a San Francisco court that it was maintaining the same position as President Bush's Justice Department on a case involving detainees trying to sue a private company for its role in their (allegedly) extraordinary renditions. The Obama administration pushed the status quo administration argument by invoking the "state secrets" argument, also a Bush-era fave. "It is the policy of this administration to invoke the state secrets privilege only when necessary and in the most appropriate cases," said DOJ spox...

Jake Tapper isn’t the easiest guy to interview. After all, when your interview subject is a competent journalist, he or she already knows all the tricks of the trade — the subtle flatteries, the ever-so-slightly leading questions — so Tapper isn’t about to say any more than he has to about his personal politics or what goes on behind the scenes of his job as ABC News White House correspondent. Or it’s possible Tapper doesn’t want to talk about these things because he’s one of the last remaining journalists in America who take the responsibilities of their jobs seriously, and...

Is President Barack Obama's administration showing hints it is losing confidence in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner? CNBC's Larry Kudlow said the signs are suggesting as much. The host of "The Kudlow Report" said in an appearance with CNBC On-Air Editor Charlie Gasparino on his March 17 broadcast that a statement put out earlier today by the administration, and placed at the top of the Drudge Report, hinted this was the beginning of the end for Geithner. "You know, statements out of the blue - statements like this are what I call a real bad leading indicator that Geithner's time, days...

ABC's Jake Tapper is one of the few White House Press reporters who have not been swigging down the Presidential cool aid. He asks the questions that we want to know. Take the case of the AIG executive bonuses. Yesterday all hell broke loose when the news began to filter out a about the major green given out to AIG executives because of contractual obligations. Since the federal treasury has been forking over our tax dollars to AIG every few weeks since the first bailout, the questions arises, why didn't anyone know about the contractual bonuses before last week? Jake...

Somewhere Ron Ziegler is laughing . . . Pres. Nixon’s feisty late press secretary would have to tip his hat to Robert Gibbs for the brazen stonewall he put up today to Jake Tapper’s line of questioning on what the Obama administration knew about the AIG bonuses and when they knew it. Tapper’s basic point was this: instead of trying to stop the bonuses now, when the administration is in a relatively weak bargaining position, why didn’t the administration demand that the bonuses be killed as a condition for the granting of the latest billions in bailout money given to...

Last evening’s Fox News Watch included an homage to Sam Donaldson on the occasion of his retirement. Asked if there were reporters currently on the scene like Donaldson, panelist Jane Hall responded: “we don’t see a lot of them. Some people think Jake Tapper has been pretty aggressive.” Tapper, ABC’s chief White House correspondent, has given recent evidence that he is among that rare breed of MSMer willing to report inconvenient facts about the Obama administration. As Jennifer Rubin at Commentary’s Contentions blog has observed, it looks like Tapper is the only MSM outlet to have reported this story: "Brian...

ABC News has learned that the Obama administration will begin the process of releasing a prisoner from the Detainee Center at Guantanamo Bay next week, perhaps as early as Monday. Binyam Mohamed, a 30-year-old Ethiopian and legal resident of the UK, will be transferred into British custody, government officials told ABC News. The British will fly Mohamed back to England. The British government has signaled it intends to subject Mohamed to surveillance, but he is not expected to be arrested. British authorities have long expressed concern that any evidence against Mohamed would be inadmissible because of alleged torture against him...

Is it Jake Tapper or Jake Scrapper? I am beginning to think the later as amongst the Obamagobbed media, ABC News' senior White House correspondent Tapper is emerging as the man ever ready with the pointed question for Obama and his administration. We may even call Tapper the Sam Donaldson of the Obama era. We all remember the many long years when Sam Donaldson would stand before Republican presidents (oh, and Clinton, too) and their press secretaries and, in that accusing monotone, ask the the most pointed question of the day, don't we? Of course, we also remember the less...

Here is video of ABC News' Jake Tapper nailing White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to the wall today on President Obama's statement yesterday, directly contradicted by Caterpillar's CEO, that passage of the Stimulus Plan would lead Caterpillar to rehire laid off workers. He also asked Gibbs what it says about Obama that no Caterpillar workers lobbied Rep. Aaron Schock to vote for the Stimulus Bill despite Obama putting him on the spot yesterday to do so in front of the workers. In both cases, Gibbs refused to really address the questions. Jake Tapper is showing himself to be a...

ABC's tenacious reporter is already proving to be the new star of the White House press pack. Last night’s prime-time presidential address may have been like prom to the White House press corps, but every high-schooler knows that reputations are made in the schoolyard. And for the freshman class of 44, the first skirmish happened last Thursday in the White House briefing room between presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and ABC’s Jake Tapper. Tapper, the network’s ambitious, telegenic Senior White House Correspondent, has made a name for himself as a tough questioner, but last Thursday, Tapper’s tenacity didn’t just get...

Here is video of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs getting irritated with ABC News Reporter Jake Tapper. Tapper was pressing Gibbs on making documents available on whether Obama nominees have paid taxes. Gibbs was flippant with Tapper and eventually completely ignored a second question asked by Tapper. It's still early, but it seems to me that Robert Gibbs is a total bust as Press Secretary. He is very poor at the give and take with the press corps on camera. He made a fool of himself today, and showed himself to be as thin-skinned as the President he serves....

ABC News has learned that on Friday, President Obama will likely order the Department of Defense's Military Commission to withdraw charges against terrorist suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The charges may later be reinstated in a military commission or pursued in a civilian court. Al-Nashiri will remain in custody. The announcement will not be made until after President Obama meets with the families of victims of terrorist attacks on 9/11 and on the U.S.S. Cole, where he will assure them that this step is not being done to be lenient towards al-Nashiri. The move is being done to stop the continued...

My item of earlier this afternoon notwithstanding, not everyone at ABC is in the Obama tank. During the course of the campaign, Jake Tapper distinguished himself among his MSM colleagues by asking tough questions regarding candidate Obama. He did so both on the air, and notably in postings at his Political Punch blog. Recently named ABC’s Senior White House Correspondent, Tapper has served notice that he hasn’t lost his fastball. Readers will recall my item of yesterday describing how CBS’s Early Show weekend anchors apparently thought it was a good idea to have themselves posterized in the iconic Obama style...

...As Obama entered the room it was absent of the regular fanfare of cheering and clapping. The diners were polite; staying seated at their respective tables and waited for the President-elect to come to them to stand up...

And, it should be pointed out, Mr. Obama has a relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, having not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, but having served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house. That 2002 endorsement came at the same time that Axelrod had such serious concerns about whether Blagojevich was ready for governing he refused to work for his one-time client. According to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Emanuel, then-state senator Obama, a third Blagojevich aide, and Blagojevich's campaign co-chair, David Wilhelm,...

"Obviously like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the US attorney's office today," said President-elect Obama this afternoon in Chicago, speaking of the criminal complaint against Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for corruption. "But as this is a ongoing investigation involving the governor I don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time." Asked what contact he'd had with the governor's office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said "I had no contact with the governor or his...

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will tomorrow discuss whether or not it should take up the case of Leo C. Donofrio, Applicant, v. Nina Mitchell Wells, New Jersey Secretary of State, a case that challenges the citizenship of President-elect Obama. After the Justices meet -- and assuredly decline to hear the matter -- the anti-Obama activists supporting the case will hold a vigil near the steps of the highest Court in the land. The theory -- which is without evidence -- is that Mr. Obama's birth certificate is faked, and that he was not born in Hawaii but...

In case you care… "For nine months, I kept quiet," Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said today at Mosque Maryam in Chicago, "because I saw that the good words that I spoke about this beautiful young man" -- President-elect Obama -- "at our Saviours' Day convention and the way they were misused. I decided it would be better for me to just be quiet rather than be drawn into the controversy that was swirling around his pastor, Father Pfleger, and others." "I feel freer today to say the things that are in my heart," said the controversial religious leader....