Jake Tapper and John King expose where GOP went wrong in blunt exchange

Republicans went wrong in a lot of places in the months leading up to their punishing midterms Tuesday night, what with Trump’s damaging tariffs and his self-made war in Iran blowing gas and grocery prices to the sky.

But CNN anchor Jake Tapper and data analyst and reporter John King had a much quicker argument for numerous Republican losses — and they delivered their point with a bloody call-and-response act.

“Math not my strong suit, but 53 percent of the vote is in. There's still a lot of votes to count. But the Democrat is up more than a million votes right now,” Tapper told King, while scanning CNN’s tally of Democrat wins, including a brewing win in Texas between Democrat James Talarico and GOP candidate Ken Paxton.

“So, this has not happened: A democrat winning a senate seat in Texas in 38 years,” said King.

“That's older than my entire staff,” Tapper marveled.

“I just want to reinforce the point. This has not happened in 36 years, 38 years in the senate,” said King. “… Half of the people alive in Texas today were not alive when Ann Richards won the race for governor, or when Lloyd Bentsen won the race for senator. That's how big of a deal this is, if it holds up. This would be ‘wow history.”

“But who picked him,” demanded King, pointing to the photo of Paxton, who was behind Tlarico by more than a million with half of districts reported.

“President Trump picked Paxton [in the GOP primaries] and chased out the incumbent republican senator John Cornyn, who was well respected and would have at least been more competitive than this,” said Tapper.

“Who picked Darline Graham in South Carolina?” asked King

“Trump,” said Tapper.

“Who picked Michael Whatley in North Carolina,” called King.

“Trump,” responded Tapper.

“Who picked Mike Collins in Georgia”

“Trump.”

“Well, who picked Vivek Ramaswamy in a governor's race in Ohio,” continued King.

“Trump,”” answered Tapper, without missing a beat.

“Welcome to the night,” said King, making clear in one brutal exchange how Trump’s war of vengeance against perceived Republican enemies in primaries had single-handedly sunk the party on Tuesday.

- YouTube youtu.be