CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Monday announced he was getting "the hook" after repeatedly asking Vice President Joe Biden during an interview about dropping out of the presidential race in 1988.
It wasn't clear if the order to stop the interview came from the vice president's staff or from his own producers. Tapper's live satellite interview with the vice president ran his program "The Lead" 15 minutes overtime into Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room" timeslot.
Tapper asked Biden whether it bothered him that Hillary Clinton will be getting the Democratic Party's nomination for president only weeks after
FBI Director James Comey was critical of her email practices as secretary of state, but recommended no charges.
"Mr. Vice President, I have to say, I'm old enough to remember the 1988 presidential primary race when you left after far less serious allegations than putting national security information at risk," Tapper said, referring to allegations that Biden had mirrored a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock without proper attribution.
Biden brushed aside the comparison, saying the American people will find Clinton far more credible and qualified than Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
He also said he was later proven not to have plagiarized, but didn't go back on the campaign trail because Democrats were at the time fighting the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.
"I felt there was something more important than my candidacy that had to be taken care of — my responsibility as chairman of the Judiciary Committee," Biden said.
At that, Tapper announced, "I'm being given the hook right now. We always welcome you."
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