While CNN host Jake Tapper has defended journalists on numerous occasions over the course of his career, he chose not to during Thursday night’s CNN town hall with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, allowing her to jab Sinclair Broadcast Group as not a real news organization and James Rosen as not a real journalist.

In other words, it was more of the route he took toward Dana Loesch and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) during the Parkland show trial.

Tapper asked this question after, a hours earlier, Pelosi snapped at Rosen for asking whether she “hates” President Donald Trump:

There was an intense moment this morning when you spoke to reporters. A reporter asked you if you hated President Trump, if that was the motivation for impeachment. You said you don't hate anybody, and you also said, “don't mess with me when it comes to words like that,” the word “hate.” Can you — can you share why that seemed to elicit such a strong response from you?

Pelosi didn’t miss a beat: “Was that a reporter? Is that what reporters do? Is that what reporters do?”

And here was Tapper’s interjection: “He's what — he — well I'm not going to comment on that. But yes, it's a reporter with the Sinclair News.”

Pelosi continued by wondering if Sinclair is a real news organization (she said “news story,” but you know what she meant) and then wax poetic about her Catholic faith and joked about an appropriate use of the word “hate” as a chocoholic “for vanilla ice cream.”

Tapper replied that Rosen was paraphrasing an argument Congressman Doug Collins (R-GA) made about the impetus behind impeachment and Pelosi dismissed that by arguing that “it's a technique, a tactic that they use” when she’s “rather like to think that America is a country that is full of love.”

Only after another exhaustive question about the exchange and the President’s “nervous fit” tweet did Tapper move on because he “want[ed] to give you a chance to respond.”

To be clear, there were plenty of other questions at the town hall (mostly from college students). For example, Haverford Township, PA Democrat Laura Cavender wondered what recourse the House would have if Trump is reelected even though he would have already been impeached:

If Donald Trump is reelected, and continues to behave corruptly, and with a disregard for truth, human dignity, and the law, what recourse will the House have, since the impeachment process will already have taken place? What will the checks be on this President if he is re-elected?

In the final few minutes of the town hall, there were two softballs from the left with one about climate change and the other about her legacy (click “expand”):

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDENT ADDY PERLMAN: What is Congress doing to ensure my generation will have breathable air, water we can drink, a climate that will not cause massive food shortages, and extreme temperatures that will relegate us to being cave-dwellers. Should fossil [LAUGHTER] — should fossil fuel companies, utilities and other polluters be civilly and — and criminally liable for the damage they are causing to our environment? (....) UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND STUDENT ELENA LEVAN: This impeachment process is historical. How do you want to be remembered as a part of it?

To see the relevant transcript from the CNN Town Hall on December 6, click “expand.”