INTERVIEW — JAKE TAPPER – Anchor of THE LEAD and STATE OF THE UNION on CNN

• NOTES: Tapper is going to be the commencement speaker at Darthmouth this year and last night, he was on Colbert…. also we aired the CRUZ vs SANDERS debate on WMAL this week
• Gorsuch Calls Trump Tweets About Judges ‘Demoralizing’ And ‘Disheartening.’ Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch told a U.S. senator today that he found President Trump’s recent attacks on judges to be “demoralizing” and “disheartening.” Gorsuch made the comments during a private meeting and was quoted later by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Blumenthal told reporters, “He certainly expressed to me that he is disheartened by the demoralizing and abhorrent comments made by President Trump about the judiciary.” Gorsuch has been meeting with senators in preparation for confirmation hearings. A member of the Supreme Court nomination team escorting Gorsuch through the get-acquainted meetings also confirmed the remarks to NPR’s Tamara Keith.
• Poll: Trump More Widely Trusted Than News Media. “Better to get your news directly from the president,” Republican congressman Lamar Smith said last month. “In fact, it might be the only way to get the unvarnished truth.” You may call that sentiment Orwellian, but nine out of ten Republicans would call it common sense: A new poll from Emerson College finds 90 percent of Republicans believe that the Trump administration is “truthful” — while less than 10 percent say the same about the news media. By contrast, 77 percent of Democrats believe the Trump White House is “untruthful,” while 69 percent think the news media generally tells the truth. Independents tend to think they’re all a bunch of liars, with 52 percent calling the administration untruthful and 47 percent calling the media the same.