July 24, 2017
An ongoing war between the Donald Trump-aligned wing of the conservative press and the mainstream media made a stop in Philadelphia on Sunday.
CNN host Jake Tapper, who was born in New York City but moved to Philadelphia's Queen Village as a kid, got into a back-and-forth on "State of the Union" with incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
During an exchange about his own and President Trump's communication styles, Scaramucci brought up his blue-collar roots in Long Island, suggesting he aims to speak to the people who surrounded him there and who embrace the president's message.
"I grew up in a very similar neighborhood in Philadelphia," Tapper intervened, implying that his upbringing shared similarities with Scaramucci's and exposed him to the same type of community.
The interaction served as the launch point for a Breitbart News investigation that cast doubt on Tapper's history in Philadelphia. The story disparagingly paints him as a rich kid buoyed by "Ivy League puffery," despite claims of a middle-class background.
Tapper, when he was growing up, went to a private elite high school with exorbitant tuition rates. The Akiba Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His father was a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and a wealthy pediatrician. Before Harvard, Tapper’s father went to Dartmouth—another Ivy League school that Tapper would eventually attend.
Breitbart went so far as to contact Tapper to ask him how much his family paid for him to attend Akiba. Rather than provide answers directly to Breitbart, Tapper took to Twitter to respond.
Someone asked about my saying I grew up in a neighborhood similar to @Scaramucci so wanted to expand on that. Mom and Dad moved to Philly 1/
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
2/ when I was a couple months old. My mom still lives in the same house in Queen Village - right on the border with South Philly. There was
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
3/ subsidized government housing (Southwark) half a block away. When I was 8 my parents divorced and dad moved to suburbs in 1979 after
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
4/ he remarried. My parents had joint custody so I split time with them. My dad is a doctor so we were never wanting; plenty of working
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
5/ class people lived/live where my mom still lives. And indeed I talked to some of them when we covered the Dem convention in Philly ...
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
6/ last year! https://t.co/IC3kMP2uVl
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
7/ Trump won a ward in South Philly (and 2 in NE Philly) which did not surprise me after Mr Termini told me about "leaners" (watch the clip)
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
8/ Philly represent! Have a great Sunday -- pic.twitter.com/de2Rl0kpL9
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 23, 2017
The dust-up comes a month after three CNN journalists resigned in the wake of a retracted story that claimed Scaramucci, a member of Trump's transition team, met with the chief executive of a $10 billion Russian investment fund. Details in the report, including the nature of a Senate investigation and the investment fund's connection to Russian bank under U.S. sanctions, were insufficiently corroborated.
Scaramucci, prior to accepting his current position, accepted CNN's apology.
.@CNN did the right thing. Classy move. Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on. https://t.co/lyVajCKNHx
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) June 24, 2017
