Unlike the rest of America, Jake Tapper, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent and the moderator of Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate, didn’t think the three-hour event lasted quite long enough.
Tapper was asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on-air on Thursday what he thought of the criticism that the debate ran “a little too long.”
“That was a decision made by my boss, and yours, [CNN President] Jeff Zucker,” Tapper said. “So it’s not one I would second-guess.”
Tapper explained that the network’s decision to make the debate three hours long allowed all 11 participants to share their positions. Still, he said, they didn’t cover all the ground he hoped to.
“There were a number of issues that I wanted to get to, that I had questions for that we didn’t get to: veterans’ affairs, Black Lives Matter, police, education, trade,” Tapper said. “We let people go back and forth if we thought it was good so some of those questions fell by the wayside. The truth is I could have gone another hour, but I don’t think the viewers would have stuck with us.”
Others, like GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, have suggested more cynical reasons for CNN’s decision to prolong the debate.
Trump told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the three-hour run time was “unacceptable” and suggested CNN was motivated by increasing advertising revenues for the high-profile event.
“That had nothing to do with anything else,” Trump said.
The news channel announced on Thursday that 23 million viewers tuned into the debate, making it the most-watched program in CNN’s history.
Jake might’ve been able to, but the rest of us… not so much.
Look, three hours was too long for the average viewer. If you thought it was better to let the inmates run the asylum that you didn’t feel right breaking in to address the issues you wanted to address, then that’s on you and not on the candidates or on your boss.
Um…yeah. I’m sure he tells his mistress that all the time.
We were watching a debate among alleged candidates for the presidency. Three hours is on the low end for an event that purported to ask substantive questions to help us decide on the next eight-ish years of rulership.
Of course, it was really just a shouting match and popularity contest for the candidates that generates clicks and ad revenue for the media, masquerading as a debate.
“The truth is I could have gone another hour, but I don’t think the viewers would have stuck with us.”
Tapper continued, “But honestly Wolf, after that heroin you gave me kicked in, I didn’t realize we’d even gone three hours. I thought it was still quarter after 10. I mean, Jesus, the colors. Trump’s hair was just growing out in tentacles and enveloping all the other candidates. Marco Rubio turned into a Mini-Me version of Henry Kissenger squirting water at Rand Paul, and Carly looked like the Chicken Lady. That was some good shit, man…”
Why does CNN hate America?