CNN's Jake Tapper Tries Dunking Ivanka Trump in Back and Forth Over CO2 Emissions, but It Backfires

As my colleagues and I have previously documented, CNN’s Jake Tapper has firmly established himself over the last several years as the type of media figure who almost always has an angle to push. Not surprisingly, most of those angles involve the promotion and/or perpetuation of tiresome Democratic bogeyman narratives about the evil nature of Republicans.

Had that not been clear prior to Election Day, Tapper’s post-election actions – where he has done things like launch into juvenile rants against White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as well as endorse the concept of an Enemies List-style shaming of former Trump administration officials – should put any doubts about Tapper’s supposed “objectivity” as a journalist to rest.

The latest example of Tapper showing his true liberal colors comes courtesy of the Twitter machine, where he took issue with tweets posted by Ivanka Trump earlier today about the country’s declining greenhouse gas emissions numbers.

Here’s how it started:

FACT: Greenhouse gases generated by the U.S. will slide 9.2% this year, tumbling to the lowest level in at least three decades. @EPA

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 24, 2020

Whoa, claimed Tapper. This, he alleged, is “largely” because of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, and not any sort of official United States policy that would have helped bring about the change in numbers:

This is largely because of the pandemic and the economic catastrophe it wrought. “The biggest drop in emissions this year came from the transportation sector, where emissions fell 14 percent, dragged down by a steep drop in air travel and automobile trips.” https://t.co/FTgyAliz2M

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 24, 2020

Ms. Trump fired back at ~~Biden’s climate change spokesman~~ “The Lead” anchor by pointing out stats from 2019, before the pandemic started:

US CO2 emissions in 2019 were the lowest they have been since 1992. Per capita emissions were lower in 2019 than they’ve been at any time since at least 1950. https://t.co/iXebSmyXRR

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 24, 2020

While Tapper acknowledged her 2019 stats, he again tried to claim it had nothing to do with any Trump administration policy on cutting carbon emissions:

Ah so now we’re talking about last year? Ok cool yes that’s true. So why was that?

“The story of the emissions decline has largely been one of market forces—rather than policies—that have made utilities close coal plants in favor of cheaper natural gas and renewable energy.” https://t.co/dIO44Ldtwc

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 24, 2020

Tapper didn’t seem to realize that not only had he basically proved her point but that he also undercut the left’s own arguments for a Green New Deal at the same time. Ms. Trump didn’t respond, but others stepped in to give him a helfpul heads up:

Awesome. So the market can be relied upon for better environmental outcomes instead of some Green New Deal government boondoggle to nowhere.

Very cool of you to report on this, Jake.

— ThanksGuyving Faux (@Faux_Guy_) November 24, 2020

Tapper dunking on himself while shitposting is classic Tapper https://t.co/Zbmgh1tbS0

— Quick Time Tweets (@DirkTheDaring3) November 24, 2020

okay but it is a policy to let market forces do it rather than put big government in there https://t.co/QzZ23M4FSu

— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) November 24, 2020

It’s almost as if letting the private sector deal with the problem is better than giant globalist accords… https://t.co/amWOwGt9aA

— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) November 24, 2020

You’re so close Jake. I mean you even said the words.

Pretty wild how the free market takes care of it without taxing them out of existence or creating useless laws that make it harder for the economy to grow. https://t.co/ovrZPCbZ5L

— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) November 24, 2020

This is defined in the dictionary as a "self-own." https://t.co/fhF7WOBAo9

— KJ Andrews (@kj_andrews) November 24, 2020

This is incredible. Tapper claims that emissions cuts are due to Covid. Ivan is dunks on him and he admits she’s right shortly before whining that it was caused by market forces instead of the WH blowing up the economy. https://t.co/TAMn30dTsq

— popcornsutton (@popcornsutton18) November 24, 2020

Heh. You know it’s a bad day – a seriously bad day – for Jake Tapper when a successful Republican woman who Democrats, CNN guests, and others in the media treat as a vapid ditz gets him to accidentally endorse free-market solutions in the midst of his attempts to “own” the argument. LOL.