OPINION:
Apparently the fireworks on the set of CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper didn’t end when Tapper cut-off an interview with White House aide Stephen Miller and threw to commercial.
According to a CBS report, CNN had to use security forces to physically remove Miller from the set:
President Donald Trump’s senior policy advisor Stephen Miller was “escorted” off a CNN TV set in Washington on Sunday by the network’s security officers following a contentious interview with Jake Tapper, CNN has said. A CNN source told CBS News that Miller was escorted out “after refusing to leave voluntarily.”
Miller appeared on Tapper’s “State of the Union” program Sunday morning to defend the president from charges leveled in the new book by journalist Michael Wolff, “Fire and Fury,” about the purported dysfunction in the White House. The interview became so contentious that Tapper cut the interview short and said Miller was wasting his viewers’ time.
“The segment was over and Mr. Miller was politely asked to leave the set multiple times. After refusing to leave, he was escorted out by security,” the CNN source told CBS News.
It’s noteworthy that the report is attributed to an anonymous source at CNN delivered to CBS. One has to wonder why CNN wouldn’t run with this story on their own. Why let a competitor have a scoop on something that happened on your own set? In fact, why not turn your cameras on and tape the disruption caused by a Senior Policy Adviser to the President? Isn’t that newsworthy?
The interview was contentious, argumentative, maddening… it was great television.
Tapper’s entire line of questioning revolved around the past week’s drama over Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” and the quotes made by former staffer Steve Bannon.
Miller attempted to discuss immigration and trade issues in his answers about Bannon but Tapper kept circling back to the Beltway drama. At one point Miller suggested he had been invited on to talk about policy, not Bannon and the book.
Tapper said he had plenty of policy questions to ask, but Miller had spent too much time “filibustering” on the early inquiries over Bannon.
The host then abruptly called an end to the segment. “There’s one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious in order to please him,” Tapper said. “I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time.”
Here’s the entire segment. In Tapper’s own words, judge for yourself:
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