Jake Tapper Tried To Blame Biden For Western Water Crisis And Got Schooled By Mark Kelly

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:55 pm

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked several questions that tried to lay blame on President Biden for the western water crisis, but Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) delivered the facts.

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Transcript via CNN’s State Of The Union:

TAPPER: So, you’re standing in front of the Phoenix Grand Canal in your home state of Arizona that — your state is in the midst of an unprecedented drought. The federal government just announced new restrictions that are going to cut Arizona’s supply of the Colorado River by 21 percent.

What will those cuts mean for Arizonans? And will they actually do anything to address the core problem here, which is that there simply isn’t enough water, at least in part because of the climate crisis?

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Well, Jake, let me start by saying that these cuts were decided during the last administration, you know, the states working together to come up with a plan to deal with this unprecedented drought.

…

TAPPER: I mean, it’s an existential crisis for your state and others, as I don’t need to tell you.

Is the Biden administration being too passive, too cautious?

KELLY: Well, first — first of all, it’s not existential.

We have got solutions. I was able to add $8 billion into the bipartisan infrastructure bill for more water storage and resiliency and settling tribal water claims, more recently, in the Inflation Reduction Act, $4 billion to deal with this drought. So we do have the tools in place. What we don’t have as the partnership right now with other states. Arizona has made an offer to put more and leave more water up in Lake Mead by far than any other state. So we need the other Upper and Lower Basin states to step up and do their part.

Jake Tapper seemed to have two goals throughout the interview. He wanted to try to cause division between Kelly and Biden because the DC media has one hundred percent bought into the Republican talking point that linking Congressional Democrats to Biden is bad for Democratic candidates, so getting Kelly to distance himself from Biden would be a big headline.

Tapper also seemed insistent on blaming Biden for the water crisis that the president has nothing to do with.

Sen. Kelly didn’t take the bait on either front and instead delivered the facts to Jake Tapper. The worst cable news interview isn’t interested in the facts but wants to create a headline moment.

Tapper didn’t get his headline, but Sen. Kelly did expose some of the negative bias in the corporate media’s coverage of President Biden.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association