Jake Tapper: A journalist’s job ‘is not to be liked’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said during an interview on CBS' “Late Show” Wednesday that he isn’t concerned that President Donald Trump doesn’t appear to be a fan of his network.

Tapper recently had a contentious exchange with Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway after the president claimed CNN is “fake news.” Tapper grilled Conway on inaccurate statements made by the White House and asked her if she agreed with the president's assessment of his network.

Host Stephen Colbert rattled off a list of derogative names Trump has called CNN: "Fake news, fraud, the worst, so biased, failing, unwatchable, a disgrace to the broadcasting industry, disgusting, phony reporting, unprofessional, bad television and CNN can go to hell."

Tapper quipped, “He certainly watches us a lot.”

“What’s it like in the halls over there knowing that the president actively doesn’t like your network?” Colbert asked. “How do people feel over there?”

“I don’t think anybody cares,” Tapper said.

Tapper added that he thinks former President Barack Obama wasn’t a fan of his either.

“My job is not to be liked,” Tapper said. “My job is to tell the truth, and deliver the facts and hold people accountable.”

Axios recently reported that Tapper is a target of Republican operatives following his interview with Conway, who are “urging at least one conservative-friendly website to write Jake Tapper hit pieces.”

Tapper, however, doesn’t just ruffle the Trump administration’s feathers. In a leaked email, staffers for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton asked why Tapper is “such a dick” — a comment he took in stride:

Tapper also grilled members of Obama's administration, famously asking tough questions of former White House press secretary Jay Carney and White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, as well as the president himself.

Tapper recently told The Daily Beast that while he had political views when he was younger — which lead him to work as an aide for a Democratic member of the House of Representatives and as in public relations for a gun control group — he is now an independent.

“The longer I have spent in Washington, D.C., the more I’ve realized that no party owns a premium in ideas or ethical behavior, and I don’t look at either party and think that it represents my views,” he said.