‘Not so unifying’: Jake Tapper nails Trump for ‘nationalistic undercurrent’ in speech to Congress
CNN host Jake Tapper looked beyond the pageantry of Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to point out that the speech had a “nationalistic undercurrent” that would trouble many Americans.
“It was a much more subdued President Trump,” Tapper noted following the speech. “He stuck for the most part — 95 percent — to the teleprompter and the words that had been written for him, with him, by his speechwriters. It was a speech in which he was clearly trying to reset in a lot of ways.”
But Tapper observed that many Democrats would have a hard time swallowing Trump’s call for unity when they look beyond “the wrapping in which he presented the policy.”
“There is a clear America-first, nationalistic undercurrent to a lot of the things he talked about,” the CNN host remarked. “He talked about a total revamp of our immigration system. Shifting from one taking in refugees to have a more self-interested immigration policy, one based on bringing in people of higher skill.”
Tapper also pointed to Trump’s call for a special Department of Homeland Security office to serve people victimized by undocumented immigrants.
“His tone might have been one thing, but a lot of people in that chamber, Democrats especially but also some moderate Republicans, are going to find issues there that’s not so unifying,” Tapper said.
Watch the video below from CNN.