Mom of a Special Needs Child Claims a Flight Attendant Humiliated Her Family — and CNN's Jake Tapper Is Coming to Her Defense

CNN's Jake Tapper defended the mother of a special needs child who complained that United Airlines wouldn't let her keep her 3-year-old on her lap during a recent flight from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to Newark, New Jersey.

Tapper responded to a tweet and a Tumblr post from the mom, Elit Kirschenbaum, after she accused a flight attendant of creating a scene and embarrassing her family by demanding that her daughter sit in her own seat, even after she informed the staffer that the child is unable to do so.

Tapper got involved and publicly shared his thoughts after Kirschenbaum sent a tweet to United Airlines claiming that the company's "treatment of families traveling with special needs children is deplorable" along with a link to her Tumblr account of what unfolded.

"This story from one of your passengers is very upsetting. I hope you will respond," the anchor wrote in one tweet.

And when the airline began responding to critics of the purported incident by citing safety regulations that require children ages two and older to be in a seat, Tapper sent another message claiming that the rebuttal seemed "rather cold."

Kirschenbaum's claims about what happened on the airline Tuesday have gained a fair bit of attention.

"I informed the woman that Ivy has special needs and is unable to sit independently.  She asked for a boarding pass and whether we had purchased a ticket for her," Kirschenbaum wrote on Tumblr. "We said that we did have a ticket for her but again, she is unable to sit. We have flown on United several times since she had turned 2 and she had always been on my lap."

From there, the mother claimed that the flight attendant created a scene and brought co-workers over to lecture the family about seating policies, though other flight attendants did purportedly plead the family's case, according to Kirschenbaum.

"The other 3 attendants scoured the Flight Attendants’ Handbook and found a clause that stated that if a passenger was unable to sit independently they were allowed to sit on a lap.  She had the opportunity to make a justifiable exception and chose not to," she continued. "My husband pleaded with her, my other 3 children were sobbing, my niece was sobbing, other passengers were getting involved yet this woman still displayed zero compassion."

In the end, the pilot reportedly got involved, asking that the child be in a seat during takeoff and landing, though she was reportedly allowed on her mother's lap for a portion of the flight. Kirschenbaum claims that the battle delayed the flight for nearly an hour.

"My family was humiliated in front of a full flight of passengers," she wrote.

(H/T: Mediaite)