“Holy Smokes”: CNN’s Jake Tapper Goes Viral With Reaction To Kamala Harris’ Election Slump

Jake Tapper was left astounded by the extent of Kamala Harris' election defeat, particularly when he saw a map showing that she failed to outperform Joe Biden's 2020 victory in any state. The CNN anchor’s reaction went viral after he expressed disbelief at the map presented by his colleague, John King. “Holy smokes,” Tapper exclaimed. “Literally nothing? Literally not one county?” to which King responded, “Literally nothing.”

The clip gained significant attention, amassing 6.6 million impressions on X (formerly known as Twitter) at the time of publication. This exchange took place just before 11 p.m. PT on Tuesday, prior to the official call of Donald Trump's victory, as votes continued to be counted.

On Wednesday morning at 5:30 a.m. ET, CNN officially declared the 2024 presidential election in favor of the Republican nominee, but not before King had predicted Trump's victory earlier that morning at around 3:20 a.m. “He’s going to get there,” King said. “I was going to say ‘barring this or that or the other thing.’ He’s going to get there.” He then added, “I’m probably not supposed to say that on television… We haven’t projected it yet, but he’s going to get there.”

According to CNN's projections, Trump is expected to win 276 electoral votes, while Harris is projected to secure 223. Trump is also forecast to win the popular vote.