'Is the staffer in the room with us?' CNN's Tapper mocks Trump's excuse for racist video

Since posting a racist AI-generated video to his Truth Social account on Thursday night, President Donald Trump has blamed the now-deleted post — which depicts former First Couple Barack and Michelle Obama as apes — on an unnamed staffer. But CNN host Jake Tapper remains unconvinced.

In a Friday monologue on his show "The Lead," Tapper noted that likening Black people to apes is an "age-old, blatantly racist trope" that the president and his staff were almost certainly aware of at the time the video was posted. He also pointed out that neither Trump nor any White House spokespeople have so far apologized to the Obamas for the video.

Tapper then observed that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt "seemed outraged that people were even asking about" the video, and dismissed it as a "meme video." She then told reporters to "please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American people." But Tapper reminded Leavitt that "reposting a racist meme is not an excuse for posting something racist," and pointed out that numerous Trump-supporting Republicans spoke out immediately and demanded Trump take down the video and apologize.

"Given how often congressional Republicans claim to have not seen an offensive tweet, or they try to change the subject, or they pretend to be on their phones, all of that blowback suggested that the initial White House excuse was just not cutting it," Tapper explained. "So, lo and behold, the White House response changed, as it often does. Just before noon, the White House released a new statement saying, 'a White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.'"

"The White House did not answer my question as to which staffer it was," Tapper continued. "Is the staffer in the room with you right now?"

The CNN host reminded viewers of Trump's recent interview with NBC News' Tony Llamas, in which he was quick to distinguish between when he personally posted something to Truth Social and when he "re-truthed" content from other accounts. He then asked why Trump — who is often prone to take credit for his more controversial posts — is suddenly putting blame at the feet of "some nameless, faceless staffer."

"If this person exists — who was supposedly truth-ing on the president's account just before midnight last night — they continue the same approach," Tapper said.

"For what it's worth, the trump administration communication cycle — or what you might call a circle of life — is this: The president puts out something wild, if not offensive. He creates confusion. Then they cast doubt. They point fingers until the American people give up and move on," he added. "But the president typically tells on himself. Just listen to his words and look at what he posts."

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