Jake Tapper says pro-Palestinian protesters targeting Dana Bash is ‘antisemitism’
CNN anchor Jake Tapper called out the pro-Palestinian protesters that targeted his colleague Dana Bash earlier this week, saying the attacks amount to "antisemitism."
“These protesters target Dana at her home and this event because she’s Jewish," Tapper wrote Friday in a post on social media platform X, sharing a video of the exchange.
"There is nothing about her coverage of the Israel-Hamas war that is different from most other news coverage, covering both Jewish/Israeli and Palestinian pain,” he added. “This harassment is antisemitism."
The video attached to his comment shows a pro-Palestinian protestor interrupting an event Bash was hosting in Washington for the release of her new book, “America’s Deadliest Election.” The protester was shouting at the CNN host, calling her "bloody Bash," "a killer" and complicit in genocide.
“After World War II, every single journalist that was complicit in their war crimes was charged," the protestor shouted. "You belong behind bars."
Another demonstrator joined in, saying her friends have been dying in Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. But, they added, Bash hasn’t covered it.
“You call yourself a journalist? Report the truth!” the protestor said.
Bash remained calm during the interaction with protesters. The women wore masks and people in the crowd told one of them to “take off your mask.”
In the past, Bash criticized pro-Palestinian protesters that have roiled college campuses in recent months. She said earlier this year that their rhetoric toward Jewish students was “unacceptable.”
“Protesting the way the Israeli government, the Israeli prime minister is prosecuting the retaliatory war against Hamas is one thing," the news anchor said at the time. "Make Jewish students feel unsafe at their own schools is unacceptable."
"And it is happening, way too much, right now,” she added.
The tension comes as the Middle East conflict nears the one-year mark since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the war. The initial attack left more than 1,200 Israeli's dead and over 250 people were taken hostage. Since the onset of the conflict in Gaza, more than 40,000 Palestinians have also been killed, according to local health officials.
Cease-fire and hostage deal negotiations are slowly continuing, but many have criticized the leaders on both sides of the conflict for not doing enough.