CNN’s Tapper, Bash Face Backlash, Urged to Apologize for Controversial Comments on Tlaib

On Monday, there were increasing demands for CNN and its prominent hosts to issue apologies following false allegations that U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib made an antisemitic comment during a recent interview. This comes after the journalist who conducted the interview with the Michigan Democrat validated that the reporters had misrepresented her statements.

In a September 13 interview with Detroit Metro Times journalist Steve Neavling, Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, criticized Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, for what she described as setting a “dangerous precedent.” Nessel had taken legal action against University of Michigan students who protested peacefully against Israel’s military actions in Gaza, actions which are currently being reviewed for allegations of genocide by the International Court of Justice. The charges against these students included trespassing on their own university campus and obstructing police.

“I’m the journalist who interviewed Rashida Tlaib. She never made any comments about Nessel being motivated by her Jewish identity. You’re spreading falsehoods.”

“We’ve always upheld the right to dissent, the right to protest,” Tlaib explained during her interview. “We’ve seen it with movements for climate change, immigrant rights, Black lives, and even local issues like water access. Yet, it seems when the issue involves Palestine, the Attorney General has chosen to handle it differently, which really highlights potential biases within her office.”

Nessel, who is Jewish, accused Tlaib of antisemitism in a social media post on Friday, drawing a parallel between Tlaib’s comments and a cartoon by Detroit News automotive reporter Henry Payne that was published in the conservative National Review. The cartoon depicted Tlaib as a member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese political and militant group.

The issue escalated when Jake Tapper, CNN‘s chief Washington correspondent—who has previously faced accusations of having a pro-Israel bias—interviewed Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He asked her to comment on Tlaib’s alleged assertion that Nessel was targeting Palestine protesters “because she’s Jewish.”

“I’m not going to get involved in this dispute,” Whitmer responded. “All I can say is that we do want to ensure safety on our campuses and recognize everyone’s right to express their views. I am committed to supporting both.”

During a live segment on Monday, CNN anchor Dana Bash reflected on the “sad reality” that “antisemitism exists across the political spectrum.”

“However, politicians often hesitate to call it out when it comes from someone within their own party,” she noted, referring to “a Democratic congresswoman’s alleged claim that the state’s Jewish attorney general was allowing her religion to influence her professional decisions.”

There was no such “claim.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, criticized Whitmer in a social media post on Monday, stating, “Simply saying you want to ‘ensure safety on our campuses’ is meaningless if you aren’t actively using your platform to unequivocally denounce antisemitism and hold those accountable who break the law.”

Whitmer later issued a clarification, stating: “The implication that Attorney General Nessel would base her prosecutorial decisions on her religion rather than the law is itself antisemitic. We must all use our influence to denounce hateful rhetoric and stereotypes.”

Neavling accused Whitmer of “contributing to the falsehood.”

“I’m the journalist who interviewed Rashida Tlaib,” he reiterated in response to Tapper’s post. “She never suggested Nessel acted out of religious bias. You are perpetuating falsehoods.”

On Monday, Detroit Metro Times published an article by Neavling emphasizing that Tlaib never mentioned Nessel’s religion.

“Tlaib never once mentioned Nessel’s religion or Judaism. However, Metro Times noted that Nessel is Jewish, which may have sparked these unfounded accusations,” Neavling wrote. “It’s also worth mentioning that the ACLU of Michigan criticized Nessel for prosecuting the peaceful protesters.”

Margaret Zaknoen DeReus, the executive director at the California-based Institute for Middle East Understanding, expressed on Monday that “at this stage, it’s almost certain that CNN, Jake Tapper, and Dana Bash are aware that Rashida Tlaib never made the statements they are attributing to her.”

“Why are they persisting instead of correcting their mistake and apologizing?” she questioned.

Isaac Bailey, a columnist for McClatchy and a professor at Davidson College in North Carolina, affirmed on Tuesday that Bash and Tapper “owe Tlaib an apology.”

Late Monday, Tapper admitted during an interview with Nessel that he had “misspoken” about Tlaib’s comments the previous day.

Bash also recognized on Tuesday that Tlaib “did not refer to Nessel’s Jewish identity,” but noted that Nessel still considered the congresswoman’s remarks to be antisemitic.

Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, stated on Tuesday that “CNN needs to retract its inaccurate statements to maintain its journalistic integrity.”

“Congresswoman Tlaib should also receive a public apology for the false accusations of antisemitism,” Walid added.

As noted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier, Bash and Tapper have “integrated their Jewish identity into their reporting.”

Tlaib has repeatedly faced baseless charges of antisemitism from both Democratic and Republican members of Congress, particularly for her characterization of Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide”—a term many experts agree with—and for using the phrase, “From the river to the sea.”

The congresswoman has clarified that, for her and many Palestinians, the phrase—which is also part of the founding platform of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party—”is a hopeful call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hatred.”

Last November, Tlaib’s colleagues in the House voted 234-188, with 22 Democrats joining almost all Republicans, to censure the congresswoman for her defense of Palestine and criticism of Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in over 147,000 Palestinians being killed, injured, or missing.

On Tuesday, 21 House Democrats led by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) released a statement asserting that “questioning Attorney General Nessel’s impartiality or implying that these cases are being handled unfairly due to her religious background is antisemitic, deeply troubling, and unacceptable.”

The casualties in Gaza include at least 100 journalists, the majority of whom are Palestinian.

In May, the Paris-based press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) lodged a third complaint at the International Criminal Court, alleging “war crimes against journalists in Gaza.”

RSF stated it had “reasonable grounds to believe that some journalists were intentionally killed and that others were victims of deliberate Israeli Defense Forces attacks on civilians,” accusing Israel of “an eradication of the Palestinian media.”

To date, there has been scant coverage of these events by mainstream U.S. media, despite American journalists being among those killed or injured in what investigative reports have determined to be intentional attacks by Israeli forces.