Jake Tapper condemns bigotry being used as political tool: ‘This s— is not a game’

CNN’s Jake Tapper closed out Sunday’s episode of “State of the Union” by taking aim at lawmakers for using antisemitism as a way to score political points in an impassioned address to his viewers.

“Antisemitism is not a cudgel to be used against people for political points, nor is Islamophobia or racism or anti-gay behavior or misogyny or any other kind of bigotry,” he said in his closing remarks. “Just over three weeks ago, 1,400 people, mostly Jews, mostly civilians, were slaughtered here in some of the cruelest and most unimaginable ways in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.”

“This s— is not a game,” he added.

Reporting from Tel Aviv, Tapper also referred to House Republicans’ move to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) over her statements on the Israel-Hamas war and over the Gaza hospital explosion from earlier this month. At the time of the explosion, Tlaib targeted the Biden administration on social media over the hospital blast in a post that is still up, blaming Israel for the blast.

She later said in a statement that there have been questions raised about information from Gaza and Israel. Tapper suggested that while she has received pushback, it seems hypocritical that Republicans would censure her, citing comments made by former President Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who moved to force a vote on Tlaib’s censure.

“She got a lot of criticism from fellow Democrats, and you might be sitting there thinking, ‘Okay, I can see why that might bother, or even outrage people,’ but are House Republicans really in a position to censure Tlaib?” he asked.

Tapper pointed to Trump meeting with Holocaust deniers and his social media posts bashing “liberal Jews who voted to destroy America” as examples of Republicans facing backlash for comments against Jewish people. He also cited examples of comments made by Greene, such as her pushing the replacement theory and for comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust.

“You’re never gonna believe who the Republican offering this motion to censure Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is. I want you to take a guess. Go ahead. Take a guess. That’s right. It’s Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Tapper said.

He said her resolution reads like someone who “learned about the Arab-Israeli conflict maybe 10 minutes before, who maybe didn’t even have access to Wikipedia.” He also said that the resolution “twists a bunch of things that [Tlaib] said beyond recognition.”