Jake Tapper reportedly compares Chris Cuomo to a terrorist in protesting Jeff Zucker's ouster

Mediaite

Tapper was among a number of angry CNN staffers who questioned WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar's handling of former CNN president Zucker's exit during a tense staff meeting last night. “An outside observer might say, ‘Well, it looks like Chris Cuomo succeeded,’” Tapper said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “He threatened Jeff. Jeff said we don’t negotiate with terrorists. And Chris blew the place up. How do we get past that perception that this is the bad guy winning?” According to The New York Times' Michael M. Grynbaum, Kilar responded: "When it comes to perception, all I can offer you, Jake, is every minute of every day, we’ve got what’s on the screens behind you. I believe that’s what’s going to define us going forward far more than what’s happened today." According to the CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter, Dana Bash said at the same meeting that “the punishment didn’t fit the crime." Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter added that "internally, there is a lot of confusion about why this happened.” Meanwhile, Katie Couric reacted to her longtime friend and colleague Zucker's exit, saying in her "Wake-Up Call" newsletter that his relationship with Allison Gollust "made me uncomfortable. It seems their colleagues and the media at large turned a blind eye to inappropriate behavior."