‘That IS Breathtaking!’ CNN’s Jake Tapper Stunned By New Trump Trial Revelations On Playboy Model Payoff
CNN anchor Jake Tapper was stunned by new revelations about ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal’s payoff during former President Donald Trump’s trial that could implicate then-White House officials.
Among the new revelations from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker at the Stormy Daniels hush money-election interference trial was the fact that he spoke with then-White House officials Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders about payoffs to Karen McDougal.
On Thursday’s edition of The Lead, Tapper and correspondent Jamie Gangel keyed in on something Trump said after court when he called the testimony “breathtaking” in a rant to reporters.
Tapper agreed with Trump (obviously in a different sense) that Pecker’s testimony was “breathtaking”:
JAMIE GANGEL: Right, and actually, he started this, at least this morning. I just quickly was looking through. This is a new theme that he’s — he’s playing on. He thinks, and perhaps rightly, that people are very upset about what’s going on on college campuses, just like the border. He sees it as an issue to bring up.
I just to go back to when he came out of the courtroom, the first thing he said and I think this — Daniel Dale would agree was actually true. He said, today’s testimony in court was breathtaking.
TAPPER: Fact check, true.
GANGEL: It was — it was breathtaking!
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: What was the most breathtaking thing for you today in court? I always personally surprised to hear David Pecker calling White House aides, Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and asking them, their opinion of whether Karen McDougal’s hush money contract should be extended and them saying yes.
That’s — that is breathtaking.
GANGEL: Right. And actually, from there, I went we’ve talked about Hope Hicks maybe being a witness. I turn to David and I said, do you think Governor Sanders may be called as a witness in this case. There’s one thing that wasn’t sort of a shocking is that but I wonder from the jury’s point of view whether it speaks to David Peckers credibility. There are sometimes things that people just say in a certain way and it cuts through.
And this was about when David Pecker says to Michael Cohen, why should I pay? I just paid $30,000 for this doorman’s story. Now you’re asking me to pay $150,000 for the Karen story? I said I’m not a bank.
In other words, and this place to Trump — Trump wasn’t paying him back for these things. I just think little anecdotes like that. Yes. The defense is going saying you didn’t remember that Hope Hicks was at a meeting? I think that weighed against something like this actually helps the prosecutors with Pecker’s credibility.
Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.
