CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joined the network in January 2013, and currently anchors “The Lead with Jake Tapper” and “State of the Union.”
Tapper joined CNN from ABC News, where he most recently served as senior White House correspondent immediately following the 2008 presidential election. He also played a key role in ABC News’ Emmy award-winning coverage of the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, and its Murrow-Award winning coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden.
In addition to his reporting, Tapper has also authored four books: his debut novel “The Hellfire Club,” “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor,” “Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency” and “Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story.” Tapper’s books and reporting on the veterans and troops were cited when the Congressional Medal of Honor Society awarded him the “Tex” McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Tapper has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, the Washington City Paper, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Weekly Standard, among others. He has drawn caricatures and illustrations for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and his comic strip, “Capitol Hell,” appeared in Roll Call from 1994 to 2003. In 2001, he hosted the CNN show “Take 5.”
Tapper has been recognized with a number of awards, particularly for his work on the 2016 election. They include a 2017 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism, the Los Angeles Press Club’s President’s Award for Impact on Media and The Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Tribute to Exemplary Journalism. Tapper has also earned the coveted Merriman Smith Award for presidential coverage from the White House Correspondents’ Association four times.