Faucet(per), faucet(per)… is that this factor on? CNN anchor Jake Tapper received snippy with somebody offscreen in a hot-mic second viewers witnessed on air on Friday, August 15.
The awkward second got here throughout Tapper’s program The Lead because the anchor reported reside from Anchorage, Alaska, as a part of CNN’s ongoing protection of U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Within the CNN studio, Tapper’s colleague Anderson Cooper paused a dialog with John King to verify in with Tapper. “Let’s return to Jake in Anchorage. Jake?” Cooper mentioned, as seen in a web-based clip.
Reduce to: Tapper trying miffed as he spoke to somebody offscreen, presumably a producer within the management room. “I’m tremendous,” he mentioned, testily. “Simply give me my present again.”
Cooper, watching the hot-mic second unfold, smiled and mentioned, “Your present’s again,” as somebody within the studio laughed.
A miffed Jake Tapper goes over a sizzling mic. The best way Anderson says “present’s again” is simply 😘 pic.twitter.com/YJ4Jggz1n8
— Dylan McLemore (@voiceofD) August 16, 2025
Tapper, by then conscious he was on reside TV, stammered as he tried to segue into an interview with U.S. Senator Adam Schiff. “All proper, right here we go,” he mentioned. “So, uh, let’s go now to, uh, Senator Schiff, uh, who I, we’ve right here. Senator Schiff is becoming a member of me, uh, prepared, uh, to go, and, uh, Senator, the Democratic senator from California.”
It’s doable Tapper was pissed off with the satellite tv for pc reception he was getting (or, extra precisely, not getting) in Alaska. Throughout his interview with Schiff, the 2 males apparently misplaced contact. “Jake, I feel I misplaced you — I feel I misplaced the connection,” the senator mentioned.
“We’re having actual comms issues as we speak,” Tapper mentioned. “I’m sorry about that. If anyone can hear me, let’s go throw it again to New York.”
Tapper, who’s additionally CNN’s chief Washington correspondent, isn’t the primary anchor from the community to endure a hot-mic second — and comparatively specking, his wasn’t that embarrassing. In 2006, anchor Kyra Phillips didn’t understand her mic was on as she chatted with one other girl in a restroom, because the Related Press reported on the time. And so, as then-President George W. Bush gave a speech marking the primary anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, CNN viewers heard Phillips describe her brother’s spouse as a “management freak.” Phillips later made enjoyable of herself and her gaffe on Late Present With David Letterman.