CNN's Jake Tapper On McCarthyism, Trump And The 'Jar Jar Binks Principle' (Terry Gross, Fresh Air)

As CNN's chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper is often focused on breaking news and the latest political stories, but the host of The Lead and State of the Union switched things up a bit for his latest project.

Tapper's new novel, The Hellfire Club, takes place in 1954 Washington, D.C., during Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Communist "witch hunt." He says that although 64 years separate his characters from today's political players, many of the themes apply.

"I thought it would be fun to try to capture the 'swamp' and some other things about Washington and talk about 2018 in some ways, but ... from the lens of 1954," Tapper says.

Tapper describes McCarthy's efforts to attack and ruin opponents as "very resonant" to the current political climate: "They say history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. And there's a lot of rhyming when you read about McCarthy and when you think about President Trump."
Interview:
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/26/605978056/cnns-jake-tapper-on-mccarthyism-trump-and-the-jar-jar-binks-principle