Jake Tapper could not believe the scale of Kamala Harris‘ election defeat.
The seasoned CNN anchor is going viral on social media after voicing his surprise at an election map that showed Harris failing to overperform Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in a single state.
“Holy smokes,” Tapper exclaimed as he was shown the map by colleague John King. “Literally nothing? Literally not one county?” he asked. King replied: “Literally nothing.”
One version of the clip has 6.6M impressions on X (formerly Twitter) at the time of publication. The moment took place at nearly 11pm PT on Tuesday, meaning it came before Donald Trump‘s victory was called. Votes are still being counted.
CNN called the 2024 presidential election in favor of the Republican nominee at 5.30am ET on Wednesday, but not before King broke ranks and predicted Trump’s triumph.
Around 3.20am, King said: “He’s going to get there. He’s going to get there. I was going to say ‘barring this or that or the other thing.’ He’s going to get there.”
The presenter, famed for his so-called “magic wall,” added: “I’m probably not supposed to say that on television … We haven’t projected it yet, but he’s going to get there.”
CNN is projecting Trump will secure 276 electoral college votes, with Harris garnering 223. Trump is also forecast to win the popular vote.
