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That CNN treats the Biden campaign with kid gloves by routinely “asking” biased questions to senior spokespeople, advisors, and Biden himself is not a new development. But watching them allow the terms of an interview to be dictated to them as cameras roll for all to see is something else entirely.

On Sunday, “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper interviewed the Democratic presidential nominee’s wife Jill Biden. As expected, softball after softball was thrown, with Tapper at times coming off as a campaign spokesman himself. For example, he framed a question about the upcoming debate between Biden and President Trump like this:

Your husband is an experienced debater. He’s faced tough opponents in the past, but none quite like Donald Trump, none who are willing to accuse him of vile crimes that he’s completely innocent of.

But another issue came up during the course of the interview that inadvertently epitomized CNN’s “coverage” of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to date.

Tapper was going to ask Jill Biden about her husband’s penchant for gaffes. But he barely got out the word “gaffe” before Mrs. Biden shut him down:

TAPPER: Your husband has been known to make the occasional gaffe.
BIDEN: Oh, you can’t even go there. You can — after Donald Trump, you cannot even say the word gaffe.
TAPPER: Well, that’s what I want — I can’t even say the word gaffe?
BIDEN: It is — nope.
TAPPER: But you…
(CROSSTALK)
BIDEN: Nope. Done. It’s gone.
TAPPER: The gaffe issue is over because…
BIDEN: Over, so over.

Tapper being Tapper, he dropped it and moved on to his next softball, which was to ask “What do you think about the fact that President Trump is hemming and hawing when it comes to the issue of an orderly transition of power, should he lose on November 3?”

Watch:

Q: "Your husband has been known to make the occasional gaffe"

Jill Biden: "You can't even go there. After Donald Trump, you cannot even say the word gaffe."

Q: "I can't even say the word gaffe?"

JB: "Nope. Done. It's gone."

Q: "The gaffe issue is over?"

JB: "Over. So over." pic.twitter.com/NV8bAs7TP9

— The Hill (@thehill) September 27, 2020

Former acting DNI Richard Grenell was among the many who were not amused at how Tapper allowed Jill Biden to shut him down, and said so in a tweet referencing the fact that Tapper was recently “caught trying to influence a Pennsylvania Congressional race for Democrats”:

Jake Tapper, who was caught trying to influence a Pennsylvania Congressional race for Democrats and then lying about it, quickly backs down to help Jill Biden out of an uncomfortable question. https://t.co/I3CkvCw9J1

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 27, 2020

Imagine had this been Fox News’s Chris Wallace letting Trump dictate the terms of their interview as he gave it. Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy would erupt in outrage, and Fox News would again be accused of going easy on Trump by some of the same “journalists” who have treated Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo like a magnificent hero despite how catastrophic his response was to the Wuhan virus pandemic in New York state.

Though it’s been said many times before, it needs to be said again: CNN is not a news network. They just aren’t.

PS: Here’s a related question we all need the answer to:

Why is Tapper interviewing the missus instead of the candidates?

— PreviouslyKnownAsSomeoneElse (@DryHumorDryBeef) September 28, 2020

Sadly, Biden’s campaign has called yet another early media “lid” for today, so we won’t get the answer to that one anytime soon. Or maybe that is the answer.

Related/Flashback –>> Claire McCaskill Trifles With Richard Grenell, Learns the Embarrassing Way That It Wasn’t a Good Idea