CNN's Jake Tapper criticized for what he calls the 'big difference' between Trump, Clinton impeachments

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Key takeaways from House impeachment debate

Senate readies for January trial as full House vote looms; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper was slammed on Wednesday for what he called the "big difference" between the current impeachment of President Trump and the impeachment two decades ago of then-President Bill Clinton.

"Big differences between Clinton impeachment and this one. Clinton at this point was publicly contrite and partisans supporting him mostly argued that what he did was wrong, just not impeachable," Tapper tweeted. "This president is on the attack and his partisans deny facts and any wrongdoing."

Tapper made the same argument on-air later in the day.

"This is only the second time in modern American history this has happened. This is a serious day, a solemn day, a traumatic day in many ways. In fact, when you think about the last time the country went through this during the Clinton years in the late-'90s, a big difference was back then, you had a president who was contrite, who was apologetic, and he was supported by the Democratic Party but they were saying what he did was wrong, it just wasn't impeachable," Tapper explained. "Here, for the most part, we have a president who is defiant. He wrote a rather... I don't know how to express it, rude and defiant letter to [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi yesterday, and you have a Republican Party that is saying that the president did nothing wrong -- for the most part."

He continued, "So, that means in my view at least, the partisan divide about this impeachment is even worse than it was last time and I don’t think we shouldn't belittle how traumatic this is for the country, for people who support the president... It's an ugly day."

Many critics knocked the CNN anchor's impeachment comparison.

CNN'S JAKE TAPPER SAYS TRUMP'S LETTER IS LIKE SOMETHING 'KIM JONG UN WROTE'

"Republicans who call Trump's behavior bad, but not impeachable are told that's not good enough," NewsBusters writer Alex Christy reacted. "Second, you still have many Democrats, commentators, and journalists who defend Clinton, saying it was 'just sex.' Finally, why does it matter that Trump is defiant? Maybe he's actually innocent of shaking down the Ukrainians in order to 'get Biden.' The fact that he denies he's guilty is not proof that he's guilty."

"Another difference, just for the record, is that Clinton was charged with actual criminal acts, including perjury and obstruction of justice, not merely abuse of power and obstruction of Congress," conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted.

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On Tuesday, Tapper made a surprising comment about Trump's letter to Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter that blasted the Democrats' impeachment push.

Tapper claimed it was something like "Kim Jong Un wrote," referring to the North Korean dictator.