In 1962, after losing the California gubernatorial race, Richard Nixon said to the media, “you don’t have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” Nixon was talking out of pique and obviously was not very accurate in his vow.

However, former President Trump can legitimately say that in a manner of sorts, as his relative absence from the headlines has been ratings poison to his detractors. One of them is Jake Tapper.

In making phone calls to research this piece the predominate hit on Tapper, from both sides of the aisle, is that he is, as one Democrat journo put it, “not a bright guy.” That combined with obvious partisanship and a proclivity to bend over for any passing leftist has left his name mud with the main cadre of professional DC scribes. Another newsie said, this time a Republican, “We don’t think of him as a threat. We don’t think of him at all.”

FNC: “CNN’s ‘The Lead with Jake Tapper’ has shed a staggering 75% of its audience since the liberal network experienced a January spike in viewers. Tapper’s program averaged 2.8 million viewers in January but settled for only 706,000 in the 4 p.m. ET timeslot from May 31 through June 23, losing three-quarters of its audience in the process. Tapper’s second-quarter viewership is down 49% compared to the first quarter.

Tapper has also lost significant viewers among the key news demographic of adults age 25-54, dropping 79% of January’s audience during the first three weeks of June in his timeslot. Tapper’s show is down 47% in the second quarter compared to Q1 among the category most coveted by advertisers. In April, CNN awarded Tapper with an extra hour and expanded the show from 4-6 p.m. ET but the move hasn’t paid off in the ratings department for the struggling network. ‘The Lead’ averaged only 799,000 viewers during the 5-6 p.m. ET window through June 23, while Fox News’ ‘The Five’ averaged 2.6 million during the same timeslot to beat Tapper by a whopping 229%.”

Why? This kind of shenanigan, FNC: “Tapper tried to convince Republican congressional candidate Sean Parnell not to run against incumbent Democrat Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb last year, suggesting that the U.S. Army combat veteran would be better off running in a safer district for Republicans. Multiple people close to Parnell considered Tapper’s move an attempt to interfere with an election…Tapper may claim that he hasn’t had a transformation as a news anchor, but his constant condemnation of Republicans would indicate otherwise. After it was projected that Trump would lose the 2020 presidential election, the CNN anchor declared that for tens of millions of Americans, the “long national nightmare is over.’ ” And he stole that line from President Ford, referring to Nixon and Watergate.

Trump: CNN ratings are down 70%. MSDNC is also way down. Actually, they are ALL way down. They say the news is "boring" since I left D.C. Morning Joe, Joy Reid (whoever that is?), Nicole Wallace, Jake Tapper, and even Chris Wallace, at Fox, in free fall. A wonderful thing to see! pic.twitter.com/pDmTWcQoJi

— Jenn Pellegrino 🇺🇸 (@JennPellegrino) June 29, 2021

As the former president noted, his break from office has taken away the leftist media’s best asset. Their former viewers have moved on to other press outlets and they are left holding the refuse that remains. Jake Tapper is but one of the stories. There are many more than him who are on the steep downslide because they have nothing else to say but ridiculous criticisms of Trump. Even with liberals, that will only get you so far.

This piece was written by David Kamioner on July 1, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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