'You All Believed He Was White Too!' Erick Erickson Supports Jake Tapper's Error on Suspected Pipe Bomber

Conservative commentator Erick Erickson used the opening of his Friday broadcast to stand up for CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who incorrectly identified the suspect in a 2021 Washington, D.C. pipe bomb case as a white male.

During an episode of The Lead aired on Thursday, Tapper stated that Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old man from the suburbs of D.C., had been charged with transporting an explosive device across state lines and with intentional destruction involving an explosion.

Once CNN displayed an image of Cole on screen, it became clear that Tappers description of the suspects race was inaccurate.

The internet quickly reacted. Several politically aligned commentators mocked Tapper, and one even accused him of deliberately lying about the suspects race.

Erickson, however, pushed back against that narrative. Posting online, he noted that many people made the same assumption as Tapper did and argued that the journalist was being unfairly targeted. He later reiterated this point on air, saying that most viewers likely imagined the suspect as a white anarchist from suburban Virginia before seeing his photo.

With humor, Erickson added that the name Brian Cole itself led to a common assumption, joking that it sounded as stereotypically white as possible. He speculated that the suspects appearance might have surprised people because it didnt match the image they had formed in their minds.

He concluded by stating that nearly everyone silently made the same judgment about the suspects race, and that the only real difference was that Tapper and he happened to say it out loud. Erickson also suggested that if the mistake had been made in the opposite direction, the professional consequences could have been far more severe.

Author: Noah Whitman