Jake Tapper on Taylor Swift Election Conspiracies & Interviewing People Caught Up in Iconic Scandals

our next guest is an award-winning journalist who brings you hard-hitting cable news six days a week and a new limited series called United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper premieres February 18th on CNN please welcome Jake [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Tapper very good to see you so first of all stop by our gift shop what's going on I brought presents all the way from Washington DC first of all the the the uh bag is in honor of of Todd of my new dog Todd Todd yeah um we're dog people too so yeah you love dogs I know that this is a a novel I wrote um and I I dedicated it to Jimmy because he is my muse yes you really did dedicate it to me like no kidding isn't you because not just for the show so we were fishing uh we were fishing at Jimmy's Lodge and he the bar of the fishing lodge is dedicated to 70s stunt man icon evil coneval and I said why what is your what is your obsession with evil coneval and you said that he was one of the most classic American characters and that you knew I was writing a novel that was taking place in the 70s and you said you should make him a character in the book and he jumped the Snake River Canyon where the fishing lodge is told me to watch uh Johnny Knoxville's documentary and like so evil canil is a big character in the book he is a big character in in the book and in my young life also what have you there and then I brought you this oh thank you the sun cycle this is one of the great toys to may have been the greatest toy of my youth I don't know if you still have one but it's an original evil can evil stunt cycle at least according to eBay I feel like and I figure you can add it to I should have got you a toy yeah no no you gave me the idea for putting evil coneval in the book which was this is not an original um stunt cycle but I'll take it anyway thank you how do you know it's not well fake news I know what's going on Jake do you remember what happened with this book up um on our fishing trip this book was in the bedroom where we were as I was reading it and do you remember what happened with the kids uh my children could not sleep they were so scared of the book my daughter read the word demons and and uh they're like the book we can't sleep the book is in the room we had to remove the book from the room like the opposite of the Bible oh it's it's a thriller it's a it's a thriller and you know your kids to be they need to be toughened up a little you're right you're absolutely right safely ensconced in the Kimmel womb how long have you been covering politics in Washington oh like a quarter Century something like that the late 9s yeah and it started it was a different job back then it was a different job I mean it's it started during the Bill Clinton era uh but yeah it was it was somewhat more reality based than than it is than it is today yeah is that difficult the fact that it is like that we're in a we're in a time now where somebody can you can have evidence you can see it on videotape you can hear it with your own ears and people go like no that didn't happen it's bizarre like I know you've commented a bunch of times on this uh Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey insanity this conspiracy theory and and it's so bizarre and one of the reasons I think it happens is because the people on the far right who come up with this nonsense their incentive structure is come up with nonsense for clicks and then the people Downstream from them the politicians don't understand it's completely different incentive structure they're supposed to be grounded in facts and reality and things that matter to you know the American people um not derange conspiracy theories about Tay Tay yeah yeah about our Tay Tay yeah and then you see like this hearing today and these guys are yelling at the C would by the way deservedly so against in that in that hearing yeah right they're yelling at these guys for putting things on the internet that that are harmful and all the while putting things on the internet that are harmful yeah a few of them have put things on the internet about me that weren't so that weren't accurate yeah it's unpleasant and it's not fair it's I know it's just like there are no it's like playing a game with no rules right well you're playing with rules right I mean I I think that I am playing the game with rules and I'm adhering to facts and and journalistic ethics and the like and the other people you know if you're playing checkers they're just defecating on the board yeah and you realize you cannot win if you play by the rules and they don't and I I don't want to have anything to do with the game anymore when you look at the board like that this new show that you have the United States of Scandal yeah is uh focused on and I I think this is interesting on all the characters we used to be focused on right before this before Donald Trump came in and washed everyone else away yeah it's it it's fun it was an opportunity to go back and look at a bunch of scandals post 2000 pre- Donald Trump and and really dive into them what actually happened who they were because you know when we cover them and when we take them in as news consumers it's all just day-to-day developments and usually uh we don't find out what happen at the end because we get bored with it or something else happens usually they're not giving interviews um so it was really interesting to be able to go back and and dive into something I think it's interesting one of the guys that you interviewed was somebody that you were was a friend of yours beforehand Sanford right so we yeah one of the profiles one of the shows is about the is Governor Mark Sanford the South Carolina governor who um went for a hike on the appalation trail etc etc and where was he actually and he was in South America with his lover yes yes right which is not the same thing as hiking on the Appalachian Trail I learned but I but I knew him and I had known him since 1999 2000 and I'd known his then wife Jenny and their boys Marshall Landon Bobo and Blake and like when this Scandal erupted um I believed that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail well sure yeah a weird it's a weird lie it's a very strange lie even Bobo wouldn't believe something like that well he's he's grown up now but but yeah but but but uh and and so that was kind of an education for me in believing the best in politicians because I knew him and I didn't necessarily believe the best in him but I didn't believe the worst certainly when they said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail I didn't think oh so he has a lover in South America it's awfully specific yeah but we or a really long hike and we we integrated uh my relationship to him in that episode because I I felt like I needed to like acknowledge that I was Hoodwinked and I kind of believed the best of him when I was I wasn't covering him I was covering the White House at the time but but it was it was just a very outof body experience and so the next time it happened to somebody else I knew Congressman Anthony Weiner I did not take his word for anything oh wow interesting and yeah wisely so now you had an interview with Rod bovic yes the former Governor of Illinois very interesting character the guy with the hair he um was by the way commuted uh Donald Trump he was a Democrat yeah um but somehow Donald Trump got involved he had been on Celebrity Apprentice oh that's right he been on Celebrity Apprentice so Donald Trump knew him and his wife would go on Fox and talk to I think then yes then president Trump and beg for a commutation or a pardon and and you know he's not president Trump former president Trump's not not a particularly complicated guy right if you want to get on his good side you praise him that's it and she did that's the that's the that's the mystery that's the key the unlock the key you don't have to go into guo's guo's mouth to get the key on that on that one so then you ask him you say hey I'd like to talk to you and oh so so I said you can tell us your story give us your side of the story and um you know it's an opportunity for me to say like what were you thinking like why because you remember uh the thing was he had Obama's senate seat Obama won became president now there's a senate seat the governor uh now can appoint somebody and at the same time the federal investigators are looking into him and he doesn't want to be Governor anymore so he wants to get something in exchange for the senate seat money right isn't that what he wanted well he said it was worth something uhhuh you he said it was worth something so I got to we have a clip here okay cool knowing that they were looking at you why did you talk about this stuff that way look I had 2,896 days in prison to ask myself a thousand questions including that or you just say like this seat is very important and we want to make sure the best person gets it and separately I am thinking that I'd like to not be governor of Illinois anymore well said you got caught up in his hair I think well I mean it's just but it was what was fun for me for this whether it's it's mcgrievy uh the John Edwards Scandal um and bovich weapons of mass destruction with Valerie PL and the rest it was an opportunity to go into the Spitzer Scandal as well go into it and talk to people that were there or were the scandalized people themselves and say what what were you thinking what was really going on and I learned a ton um because you know you don't necessarily really understand it all when you're when you're covering it the Scandal breaks yeah and you know they the Scandal breaks people like you make fun of it uh everybody laughs everybody enjoys it and then we move on but you know there there are real like Shakespearean tragedies I mean maybe not bovich but you know what I mean but no Ser in all in all honesty I mean he was a king of Illinois and you Shakespeare could have written a bovich honestly now that I say that yeah well if the title he would have changed yeah he would have changed the title and maybe the hair yeah well it's great to see you the show is called United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper premieres February 18th on CNN Jake Tapper everybody we back with Crane and Ario Speedwagon

Channel: Jimmy Kimmel Live

Views: 789,829

Keywords: jimmy, jimmy kimmel, jimmy kimmel live, late night, talk show, funny, comedic, comedy, clip, comedian, mean tweets, Interview, Hollywood, Los Angeles, West Coast, CNN, News Anchor, Jake Tapper, Journalist, United States of Scandal, Politics, Donald Trump, Rod Blagojevich, Evil Knievel, All the Demons are Here, Taylor Swift

Id: CIlw30RVmZE

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 01 2024