CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday blasted the “hypocrisy that is eroding trust in” Donald Trump, arguing “the president doesn’t have a credibility gap, he has a credibility chasm.”
Tapper was discussing reports that North Korea has escalated its quest for nuclear weapons capable of reaching the Unites States. According to three separate reports, the rogue nation has produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead and nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery and, according to U.S. intelligence, loaded anti-ship cruise missiles onto a North Korean patrol boat.
As Tapper noted, Trump on Tuesday tweeted out the report on North Korean anti-ship cruise missles—a story which relies on anonymous sources and leaked information—to his 35 million Twitter followers
“It frankly created quite the awkward situation when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, was subsequently asked about the report that her boss had just retweeted,” Tapper explained, referring to Haley’s appearance Tuesday on Fox & Friends.
“It's incredibly dangerous when things get out to the press like that,” Haley said of the report Trump disseminated Tuesday. “You're not only getting the scoop on something, you're playing with people's lives.”
“That poses the question, was the president's retweet of what Ambassador Haley called ‘classified information’ therefore dangerous?” Tapper asked. “Was it playing with people’s lives?”
“We have a president who constantly rails against anonymous sources and has called for the new Justice Department campaign against leaks, and he's now sharing a story that relies upon both on anonymous sources and leaks,” Tapper continued. “Now, the president has the power to declassify materials and perhaps this was all planned and part of a strategy to send a message to North Korea, though Ambassador Haley didn’t seem to think so.”
“And this could feed into the impression of hypocrisy that is eroding trust in this president,” Tapper said, pointing to a new CNN poll that reveals 60 percent of people don’t trust Trump.
“This president doesn't have a credibility gap, he has a credibility chasm,” Tapper said. “And as this international security threat looms, that is quite a dangerous thing for a U.S. president to have.”
Watch the video below, via CNN:
