Arrogance and bias are nothing new at CNN, but when host Jake Tapper cut off attorney Alina Habba’s press conference following an exorbitant $83 million verdict against former President Donald Trump in the thin-as-a-gnat’s-wing E. Jean Carroll case, he kicked those obnoxious traits up to eleven.
Rather than allow viewers to hear Habba’s passionate condemnation of Judge Lewis Kaplan and a weaponized justice system, Tapper cut away from Habba’s remarks mid-sentence, apparently believing that his views and those of his liberal fellow anchor, Laura Coates, were far more important than the actual news that was breaking in his time slot.
(Video: CNN)
Habba was understandably outraged by the outcome of the defamation trial — one that was light on evidence but swimming in scandalous sound bytes.
“There was no proof, and I couldn’t prove that she didn’t bring in the dress,” Habba fumed from the steps of the courthouse. “There was no DNA. There was no expert. My experts were denied. Two of them, two of them were denied to come in.”
Habba said the sham trial is an example of why she stands with Trump.
“And that is why so many Americans are so proud that he is running again, and so excited to run to the ballot box,” she said. “But don’t get it twisted. We are seeing a violation of our justice system. Ladies and gentlemen, you are not allowed to be stripped of every defense that you have. You are not allowed–”
And that was about all Tapper could take.
He dismissively cut away from the attorney to insult her abilities.
“Alright, so you’re getting an idea now about why Donald Trump’s attorney is perceived as effective as she is, which is not particularly effective,” he told his viewers. “Laura Coates, if you could truth-spot a little bit of this, Alina Habba was saying that Donald Trump was not allowed to introduce, defenses. What is she talking about?”
It’s “nonsense,” Coates assured viewers because God forbid they can listen to the arguments and make up their own minds.
“She’s talking about nonsense and she’s trying to rewrite history,” Coates claimed. “And I honestly would not be surprised if she herself is now vulnerable to accusations that she has made defamatory statements of some kind without proof to the contrary.”
It’s a wonder the camera crew didn’t pass out from the noxious gaslighting fumes.
“Let me tell you, he did have an opportunity, Jake,” Coates continued. “This was the damages phase of a trial that he could have attended last year. His presence was voluntary in the sense of whether he was required to actually sit in the trial, but his defense was not voluntary. He had every opportunity, essentially, to put forth evidence, to put up a defense, to testify himself, to do all the things that she spoke of on that courthouse step just now. They made it a decision that was different from that.”
“Now, you had the penalty phase of a trial, and the judge specifically told them, here are the parameters,” she explained. “We’re not re-litigating this issue. A jury has already decided the issue that you could have participated fully in. And for that reason, you are limited in trying to have a second bite at the apple. Even in the Big Apple. That was the clear directive from the judge.”
“And so to suggest somehow that it is New York or the jury system, or somehow something nefarious was going on that muzzled the defense in the way that they chose to actually defend the case is truly ludicrous,” she proclaimed.
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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