CNN anchor Jake Tapper could not control his reaction after seeing Kamala Harris‘ underwhelming performance on election night when John King compared the vice president’s voter turnout to how President Biden fared in the 2020 election.
“You asked: Are there any places that the vice president is over-performing Joe Biden in 2020?” King said as he brought up the data on what has become known as the network’s Magic Wall. King, who serves as the network’s chief national correspondent, brought up the state-wide data, which showed a dark map, indicating that Harris did not out-perform Biden in any single state in the 2024 presidential election.
“Holy smokes,” Tapper reacted. “Literally nothing? Literally not one county?”
King then refocused the map on counties, revealing that Harris had only out-performed Biden in 58 counties by more than 3%.
“There might be more out here in the West Coast,” King added. “It’s possible one or two more as they finish the count here. But in the states that matter… in one county in battleground Pennsylvania, she’s outperforming President Biden by 3% or more.”
Hours before the election was officially called, Tapper insinuated that the Harris campaign was bracing itself after CNN anchor Abby Phillip told him the campaign had gone radio silent by 11 p.m. EST.
“This is my seventh presidential election, I would observe that when campaigns go silent it’s generally not a positive sign,” he noted.
Around 3:30 a.m. EST, King broke protocol and predicted that Trump was going to win the election before the network officially called it.
“I’m probably not supposed to say that on television,” he added. “But he’s going to get there.”
The network projected Trump’s victory just before 6 a.m. Wednesday (Nov. 6) morning after he won the state of Wisconsin, bringing him to the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
Later in the broadcast, Tapper attempted to “reassure” viewers who were disillusioned by Trump’s victory by noting that it likely stemmed from the three topics that ruled this election cycle that he felt Harris’ campaign failed to properly address.
“Whether people like it or not, Donald Trump ran an issues-based campaign. Whether or not his two-hour stemwinder rally speeches covered all of it,” Tapper said.
He noted that Trump made a point of addressing the economy and inflation, immigration and foreign policy during his campaign, topics that he said the Biden administration remained “in denial about.”
“I want to reassure [viewers] because I know that there are people out there who are worried that this vote for Donald Trump is a statement of dislike for them and I don’t think that is what people should read into the election results,” Tapper said.
