Tipsheet

Jake Tapper Is Taking Heat for Not Toeing the Line on Biden's COVID Mandate

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  September 10, 2021 6:00 PM

The Left is very much going after their own for daring to not toe the line on supporting President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate. CNN host Jake Tapper on Friday questioned whether the president had taken on the right tone when it came to the "scolding tone" he had on Thursday when blaming the unvaccinated. 

"There's also a real choice that the president has here. There is the question of coercion, and there is the question of persuasion. And you see him moving from persuasion to coercion. He took on a scolding tone talking to the people who are unvaccinated, talking about how people's patience is running out, talking about this mandate," Tapper said, raising such concerns while on "New Day."

Tapper and host John Berman had a back and forth as to how "predictable" Biden's mandates and the reaction from Republican governors was.

"And I don't know as a matter of politics, unless, of course, the goal was to get all these Republican governors and politicians to come out against this, I don't know that that was not predictable because obviously a lot of Republicans who have been on the pro science side of this are eager to show their bona fides with the base by standing up to this mandate," Tapper continued.

Berman responded that "it was absolutely predictable. And the answer may be that he was willing to take the blowback because he felt, and the White House felt it would get that many more people vaccinated."

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Multiple Republican governors have said that they would file lawsuits against the Biden administration, to which the president responded for them to "have at it."

Tapper brought up the idea that there would be court challengers, as he offered "there are legitimate constitutional questions about whether or not this mandate on businesses, not the mandate on the federal government, but whether or not the mandate on businesses will withstand a court challenge, which I am of course anticipating there will be."

Of particular concern is how the Biden administration through the Department of Labor, using Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), will issue a new rule mandating that private employers with more than 100 workers have a vaccine mandate or have their employees submit to testing at least once a week. Those in violation could face a fine of $14,000 per violation.

Tapper did suggest though that there could be standing for such a case, citing a past Supreme Court case. "There are questions about whether this goes beyond OSHA's regulatory authority, whether or not this violates the interstate commerce clause," he said. There is a Supreme Court case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, that would seem to suggest maybe there is a standing for this. One person's liberty cannot override everyone else's liberty."

While Tapper did are it a point to say "there is politics of this," he also spoke about "beyond [the] politics of this," that "beyond that, I think there are legitimate questions about whether or not President Biden has the authority to do this."

"I'm not saying it's unconstitutional. I'm just saying there is a debate to be had, and there are enough skeptics on the Supreme Court that I don't think anybody can stand here and say with any confidence that this will withstand the scrutiny of this Court," he later said.

In other words, Tapper made some thoughtful points, and people absolutely lost their minds.

As a refresher, Biden's Thursday remarks, after which he took no questions, included such lines as being "frustrated" with those who are unvaccinated.  "We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.  And your refusal has cost all of us," he said later in his remarks about the unvaccinated.