Jake Tapper taps out on big story . . . again

Earlier this year, CNN's Jake Tapper embarked on a book-promo joyride for a tome he co-authored about the juiciest yarn of his journo life, and somehow, he "missed" the whole gull-darn thing.

This might be the inaugural instance in the annals of ink-stained wretches where a guy monetizes a scoop he flat-out ignored when it was staring him in the face. Now that's journalism of a different color.

If that were you or me (minus the sweet royalties, naturally), wouldn't we pause and ponder: If we'd glimpsed the cognitive creaks in a sitting U.S. president's noggin and failed to link the dots, might we hustle a tad harder next time?

That's the rest of us mere mortals. But not our boy Jake, which probably accounts for yet another "Jake take" yesterday, when he roped in colleague Kaitlan Collins to dissect a Gaza peace deal on his show.

For the full scoop on the deal's big reveal from President Trump, swing by Matt Margolis's dispatch, where he unpacks the boss's Truth Social post. In it, Trump declared, "I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan…This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace."

Trump's laying it out plain: This is phase one of the grand scheme, but it's kicking off right now, with both sides on the hook to deliver on the basics. You know, like how actual peace deals tend to operate, baby steps toward not lobbing more rockets.

As Collins laid out the White House's "officially released" details for Tapper and his viewers: 20 points of accord, including a hostage-prisoner swap and a ceasefire, plus sundry other negotiated goodies, she noted it was premature to chase down every player's hot takes point by point.

Tapper, meanwhile, possesses this rare gift for contorting like a circus freak to sidestep the headline in plain sight, opting instead to reshape it into his preferred funhouse mirror version. He lobbed at Collins: "Obviously, blessed are the peacemakers, indeed, BUT it is worth pointing out, this is a ceasefire deal, right? This is not a larger peace deal about a Palestinian state of any sort, and who gets to rule a Palestinian state, and Israel gets security guarantees, how, and all that. That is still TBD (to be determined), right?"

The humorless Collins, ever the straight shooter, reined him in with a gentle course correction: "Yes, but. The 'yes but' part of that is that yes, this is the first phase of this deal, where the two key parts of that was a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, and also the release of Palestinian prisoners that are being held in Israel…"

Collins was politely nudging Tapper that, Trump antipathy aside, this is legit good news. Better yet, it's a bona fide peace deal by the dictionary's lights: The boom-boom stops, the body count freezes.

One has to wonder if Tapper's got a single soul in his orbit who could whisper, "Hey, champ, when you clock in daily, the pro move is to, y'know, excel at the gig?" In his world, perhaps a kindly editor, or a magic 8-ball, might remind him that the gig isn't about fumbling yarns, but spotting 'em square and serving 'em straight.

Maybe he needs to take up coding, if that's a thing anymore.

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