CNN’s long-running credibility problem just took another self-inflicted hit. During a live segment Thursday, anchor Jake Tapper confidently described newly arrested DNC/RNC pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. as “a white man.” The problem? Cole is black—and CNN already had his picture.
Tapper made the comment at 5:01 p.m., literally around the same time CNN itself published a photo clearly showing Cole’s face, a photo that originated on the suspect’s mother’s Instagram page. Yet Tapper still described him as white, and millions of CNN viewers heard it.
For conservatives who’ve watched corporate media jump to racial assumptions whenever a crime could be pinned on a white suspect, this was just too on-the-nose.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” Benny Johnson wrote on X. Others were more sarcastic: “Jake is sharp as a tack. Nothing gets past him.” Some took a darker view, accusing CNN of defaulting to “anti-white rhetoric” whenever a high-profile crime makes headlines.
Tapper’s defenders tried to excuse the mistake—one joked that “Brian” sounds like a “top-3 white name.” Others guessed he was just reading a script without looking at the actual suspect photo. But the broader point remains: for years, legacy media have rushed to racialize crime when it serves their narrative, and this time they got caught red-handed.
Meanwhile, the suspect at the center of the story isn’t exactly a minor figure. Cole, a 30-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, was arrested early Thursday and charged with using an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction. Federal authorities say he’s the man who planted pipe bombs outside both the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021—the night before Congress certified Biden’s election.
Even more explosive is what we now know about the investigation. For nearly five years, the case went nowhere during the Biden era. Former U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have said the administration allowed crucial evidence to “collect dust” while the suspect continued living freely.
Only after President Trump and his administration refocused federal attention on the case—and renewed a $500,000 reward—did things finally move. In fact, the reward won’t even be collected because federal investigators themselves finally took action.
According to a criminal complaint, Cole allegedly began building bombs as early as 2019, hopping between hardware stores and national retailers—even after authorities believe he planted two devices in the nation’s capital.
That raises serious questions: How did federal law enforcement miss a man allegedly buying bomb components for years? Why did the investigation stall until Trump’s team pushed it forward? And how many times have political considerations interfered with law enforcement under Biden?
Of course, CNN isn’t asking those questions. Instead, its star anchor was busy misidentifying the suspect’s race on live TV. For ordinary Americans, it’s another reminder of why corporate media’s trust ratings remain in the basement—and why so many viewers have tuned out entirely.
