Jake Tapper

Jacob Paul Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American journalist, author, and CNN anchor who serves as the network's chief Washington correspondent, hosting the weekday program The Lead with Jake Tapper and the Sunday public affairs show State of the Union.

Tapper graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1991 with a degree in history, where he contributed comic strips and honed his writing skills. His early career included serving as press secretary for Democratic U.S. Representative Marjorie Margolies and working as a correspondent for outlets like Salon.com and the Washington City Paper before joining ABC News in 2003 as a Washington correspondent, later becoming senior White House correspondent. In 2013, he moved to CNN, where he has covered major events including presidential elections, the death of Osama bin Laden, and moderated the 2024 presidential debate. Tapper has received multiple Emmy Awards, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the Merriman Smith Memorial Award for presidential coverage on three occasions.

Jake Tapper was born on March 12, 1969, in Staten Island, New York, to Theodore "Ted" Tapper, a pediatrician, and Helen Anne Tapper (née Palmatier), a psychiatric nurse originally from Canada who converted to Judaism. His family was Jewish, with his father practicing medicine in South Philadelphia for over four decades.

Tapper was raised in a Jewish household in Philadelphia, where his father was Jewish and his mother, originally Presbyterian, converted to Judaism prior to his birth. His early education included attendance at Akiba Hebrew Academy, a pluralistic Jewish day school formerly known as Akiba Hebrew Academy. As a child and teenager, he participated in Camp Ramah in the Poconos, a Conservative Jewish summer camp emphasizing religious observance, Hebrew language, and Zionist education, where he later served as a counselor.

Tapper has described his upbringing as "fiercely Jewish," reflecting a family environment that prioritized Jewish identity and education, though he notes his own level of formal Jewish learning exceeds that of many relatives. In adulthood, he has maintained Jewish practices, including synagogue attendance with his family—whose non-Jewish in-laws occasionally joined—and enrolling his children in Hebrew school, albeit without the immersive camp experience of his youth. His wife converted to Judaism, aligning the household with observant traditions.