Jake Tapper lets AOC repeat lie about President Trump on air, then admits he knew she was lying

Despite admitting that President Donald Trump did not call coronavirus a "hoax," CNN host Jake Tapper did not stop Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) from parroting the lie.

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez said:

We're hearing it every step of the way from this administration. First, we were hearing it was a hoax. Then we were hearing that everything was fine. Then we were hearing that the fundamentals of the economy was OK until the crash comes. And we cannot wait until people start really dying in large numbers to start production.

As TheBlaze previously reported, Trump, in fact, did not call coronavirus a "hoax."

Rather, he compared the Democratic attempt to politicize the U.S. government's COVID-19 response to the Mueller investigation and his impeachment, both of which ultimately concluded without establishing wrongdoing on the president's behalf.

Still, those facts did not stop Tapper from allowing Ocasio-Cortez to repeat the lie on live television, nor did it prompt Tapper to fact-check the New York Democrat.

In response to being called out by a Trump campaign staffer, Tapper admitted Democrats have mischaracterized the president. Tapper said he ultimately chose not to correct Ocasio-Cortez because Trump did use the word "hoax," while claiming Trump's assertion about Democratic efforts to politicize the COVID-19 response is false.

"I thought about it, because the president did not call the virus a hoax," Tapper said. "But i didn't because he *did* call a hoax the concerns of those saying that the response from the president was insufficient and that he was downplaying the gravity of the crisis. And that too was a lie."

"I guess that's the problem with a politician who lies so often; while I agree that Democrats are mischaracterizing what he said, what he did say was also false so it's tough to justify taking the time for a fact check when it's not taking a stand defining the truth," he added.