By Mariane Angela
CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Thursday misstated the race of the Jan. 6 pipe-bomb suspect, inaccurately describing the newly charged man as white.
Officials arrested Brian Cole of Virginia on Thursday, charging him with transporting and attempting to detonate pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic national headquarters in Washington, D.C., ending a nearly five-year federal manhunt. During a live segment on “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” Tapper summarized the Justice Department’s indictment of Cole and called him a white man.
“Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old white man from the D.C. suburbs, is charged with transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and with malicious destruction,” Tapper said. Brian Cole is black, not white.
It is unclear why Tapper chose to emphasize Cole’s race, and how he managed to get it wrong. But a study found that the media are far “more likely to mention an offender’s race” if “he is white, a disparity that grew in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020 and the protests that followed.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said agents executed a search warrant early Thursday, with law enforcement swarming a Woodbridge home tied to Cole through public records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. She said the Trump administration identified the suspect without any new evidence.
“This cold case languished for four years until [Director Kash Patel] and [Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino] came to the FBI,” Bondi said. (RELATED: DOJ Announces Charges Against Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Suspect)
Bondi added that investigators may file additional charges as the probe continues. The FBI spent years pursuing the pipe-bomb case, releasing surveillance footage, offering a six-figure reward, interviewing more than 1,000 people and reviewing hundreds of tips.
Law enforcement found the explosives on the same day rioters — including individuals later identified as FBI informants — stormed the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of former President Joe Biden’s victory.
