CNN’s Jake Tapper stunned by map comparing Harris and Biden results: ‘Holy Smokes’

Jake Tapper was stunned early Wednesday by an election map that showed Kamala Harris had failed to better Joe Biden’s performance four years ago.

“You asked: Are there any places where the vice president is outperforming Joe Biden in 2020?” John King, CNN’s chief correspondent, told Tapper as the pair looked at data displayed on the network’s infamous Magic Wall. King then changed the display to highlight states where Harris had exceeded Biden’s 2020 result by 3 percent or more — producing an all-dark map.

“Holy smokes,” Tapper said in response. “Literally nothing?”

“Literally nothing,” King confirmed.

“Literally not one county?” Tapper asked. King clarified that the map showed states, then switched to another display showing counties where Harris outperformed Biden by 3 percentage points or more. At that point in the evening, just before 2 a.m. Eastern Time, Harris had only done so in 58 counties.

“There may be more out here on the West Coast,” King added. “It’s possible one or two more when they finish counting here. “But in the states that matter … in one county in battleground Pennsylvania, she’s outpacing President Biden by 3 percent or more.”

About 90 minutes later, King called the race for Donald Trump, declaring, “He’s getting there.”

“I’m probably not supposed to say that on TV,” King said, noting that his network had not yet expected a Trump victory. “But he’ll get there,” he said.

CNN eventually called the race for Trump at 5:30 ET.

The Daily Beast Podcast episodes are published every Thursday. Like and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTubeor your favorite podcast app. And click here for email updates as each new episode is released.