There was more shoddy journalism form CNN talking head Jake Tapper during Sunday’s State of the Union as he repeatedly set up his Democratic guests to cast blame on President Trump for two mass shootings on Saturday. He also insinuated the President was a “racist” and “white nationalist” in the exact same vein as the shooter in El Paso, Texas.

Before boosting the liberal talking points against Trump (and pushing Democratic efforts to curtail and/or eliminate the Second Amendment) Tapper lashed out at Republican lawmakers in Ohio and Texas (the locations of the shootings) for not coming on his show to be assailed:

We should note that we invited the Republican governor, lieutenant governor, and both Republican U.S. Senators representing Texas to join us this morning. They all declined. The Republican governor of Ohio also declined. He also asked the White House to provide someone to discuss the shootings, that request too was declined.

Tapper was essentially whining that they wouldn’t drop what they were doing in terms of managing the situation in their states to come on his show. Or, perhaps they saw Tapper’s true colors when he hosted the show trial that was the Parkland town hall and knew they wouldn’t get a fair or reasonable host.

The first at-bat was former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke. Tapper quoted Washington Governor Jay Inslee and suggested Trump was a “white nationalist”. “That is a fragrantly stark accusation, do you agree with that? Do you think President Trump is a white nationalist,” he wondered. Of course, O’Rourke agreed.

There was a similar question for South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg:

TAPPER: What is the current reality? Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Governor Jay Inslee have said they think President Trump is a white nationalist. Do you? MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG: Yeah. I mean, at best he's condoning and encouraging white nationalism.

Twice during interviews with 2020 Democratic hopefuls, Tapper noted that the shooter allegedly wrote that he had an anti-immigrant sentiment long before President Trump and was not influenced by him. And twice Tapper claimed that was “hard to make sense of”.

But still, Tapper tried to make the connection while speaking to New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. “[T]his white supremacist in El Paso wrote it, he used the language that we've heard from the President in terms of calling migrants coming into this country an invasion. It’s in second sentence of this manifesto or screed, which is obviously something that President Trump has said,” Tapper posed.

Tapper also quoted O’Rourke to former HUD secretary and 2020 contender Julian Castro and insisted Trump caused the violence:

Your campaign rival and fellow Texan, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, said, quote, “President Trump's racism does not just offend our sensibilities, but challenges the character of this country and leads to violence.” You haven't gone that far this morning. Do you think that Congressman O’Rourke is saying something that's unfair? Do you see any sort of link between the comments the President makes and this kind of violence? What do you think?

The CNN host even pestered El Paso mayor, Dee Margo with a question about Trump’s alleged racism. “Beto O’Rourke, told me earlier in the show that in his view the President's anti-immigrant rhetoric is make things worse and creating an atmosphere of violence,” Tapper prefaced. “Do you agree? Do you have any concerns about the things that the President says about immigrants?”

Mayor Margo rightly brushed Tapper aside: “Jake, I'm not qualified to comment on that. I'm not a talking head. I'm focusing on El Pasoians, the 20 deaths, and their families and what it means this community, and how we can come together and not be victimized by this. This will not define us.”

This mess was to be expected from Tapper. Not only was he staunchly anti-Trump but he’s also staunchly anti-gun. If his pathetic handling of the Parkland town hall wasn’t enough, Tapper was once a member of the anti-gun Brady Center.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read: