C’mon Jake!
CNN anchor Jake Tapper walked straight into a media minefield Thursday after he wrongly labeled accused DC pipe-bomber Brian Cole Jr. as “a white man” — even as his own network was rolling out the suspect’s photo.
Tapper dropped the blunder at 5:01 p.m. during the opening of “The Lead,” describing Cole — who is Black — with the flatly incorrect racial ID. The timing made it even worse: CNN had just published Cole’s image moments earlier, sourced from the Instagram account of his mother.
Cole’s father, also Black, once retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, a detail that further undercut Tapper’s on-air claim.
Viewers were stunned, blasting the anchor for misrepresenting the alleged pipe bomber in a segment that was supposed to clarify the facts — not muddy them.
From The New York Post:
“You can’t make this stuff up,” conservative pundit Benny Johnson wrote on X.
“Jake is sharp as a tack. Nothing gets past him. Dude’s elite!” another deadpanned.
“Its impossible that he does not know what he is doing,” one user speculated.
Conservative influencer Nick Sorter accused CNN of pushing “anti-white rhetoric.”
But others were more understanding.
“Not a fan of Jake, but the guys name is Brian – that may be a top 3 white name. So understandable mistake,” one user joked.
“Clearly he never looked at the graphics. Probably just read a script,” another suggested.
Watch the clip below (Sortor added photo overlay):
🚨 WTF?! CNN’s Jake Tapper just went out of his way to LIE and call the J6 pipe bomb a “WHITE MAN”
CNN REFUSED to show a picture of the alleged bomber—who is clearly a BLACK MAN—so I overlayed a photo of him on their clip
CNN can’t help themselves but push anti-white rhetoric pic.twitter.com/Y4UJVjbT8A
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 5, 2025
Cole was arrested at his home in Woodbridge, Virginia early Thursday morning.
More over at The New York Post:
CNN’s Jake Tapper skewered for calling black DC pipe bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. a ‘white man’ on air https://t.co/dvfS6wuRMF pic.twitter.com/XzWblGenm1
— New York Post (@nypost) December 5, 2025
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