Trustees Jake Tapper and Neal Katyal Pontificate, Ponder Election Together

On February 29, the aspiring lawyers, politicos, and journalists of campus assembled in Collis Common Ground to bear witness to “An Election on Trial: A Conversation with Jake Tapper ’91 and Neal Katyal ’91.” The event, co-hosted by the Rockefeller Center and the Dartmouth Minority Pre-Law Association, saw over 300 people in attendance—a mixture of students, townies, and trustees. 

Having been cautioned by over-eager friends and one peculiar professor of Government that the event would be packed, I arrived with an hour to spare. This hour was spent picking up on the chattering of the audience, an interesting pastime considering that Public Policy 5 students were sitting only a row away from the Board of Trustees.

The excitement in the air was palpable, and the president of the Minority Pre-Law Association, Anthony Fosu ’24, delivered the introductory remarks. Fosu spoke proudly of the accomplishments of DMPLA and thanked representatives from the Rockefeller Center for their time and support. Following Fosu, Professor Herschel Nachlis briefly introduced both Tapper and Katyal, though both men needed little introduction. I say this not because of their infamy, but because Tapper and Katyal went on to spend a significant portion of the next hour reminding the audience of their work and success. 

Accompanied by moderators Professor Nachlis and Executive Director of the Rockefeller Center Anna Mahoney, Tapper and Katyal took the stage, whereupon the banter between the two former classmates became apparent. The audience began to laugh along with the men’s jokes as if they, too, were there on the fateful day of freshman fall when Tapper and Katyal met. For some members of the Board of Trustees, I suspect, they very well might have been.

The friendship between the two continues through today. Last fall, they made arrangements to jointly attend a Washington Commanders game against the Philadelphia Eagles. When Tapper was dispatched to cover the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, he could no longer attend the game, but Katyal brought Tapper’s son and one of his friends along with him. Katyal reveres Tapper, and vice versa. 

The first question was directed at Katyal in regard to what he considers to be the outstanding legal issues of the upcoming presidential election. In response, Katyal explained what he sees as the greatest obstacles to a fair presidential election with Donald Trump as the Republican Party nominee. The federal and state charges brought against former President Trump could rule him a criminal, said Katyal; furthermore, the ongoing debate against Trump’s candidacy—resulting in his removal from the ballot in states such as Colorado and Maine—will negatively impact his legitimacy. 

For a man who is presently a Professor of Law at Georgetown University and former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, Katyal’s citation of the 14th Amendment in a bid to delegitimize Trump falls flat with the knowledge that there is no federal ruling affirming Trump as an insurrectionist or that he provided aid to insurrectionists. 

However, Katyal largely glossed over this fact, and so the conversation turned to Tapper. Possessed of the more freewheeling personality of the two men, a byproduct of the competing dynamic of journalist versus lawyer, Tapper’s demeanor was refreshingly informal. He proved difficult to restrain through any kind of structured question-and-answer format, despite the moderators’ best efforts.

Keeping with the theme that both Tapper and Katyal are prototypical well-to-do, left-leaning, Dartmouth graduates-turned-trustees, their political commentary did not deviate greatly from standard center-left talking points. Much as one would in a conversation with a friend, if either Tapper or Katyal would misspeak, the other would be quick to correct him. 

Tapper referenced instances from past presidencies that he found similar to the case of Trump. This was apparently offensive to Katyal, and the men briefly debated the validity of comparing anyone to Trump.

When the moderators posed the query, “If you could ask any question to the man across from you, what would it be?” Tapper immediately questioned Katyal about his experience at Burning Man, an art festival in the Nevada desert famous for its wealthy attendees and debaucherous revelry. The conversation went on much in this same way, and it was, to put it simply, akin to listening to a podcast.

As I sat in the audience among friends, none of us particularly in favor of Tapper or Katyal, we laughed and exchanged funny looks; and when the conversation began to draw to a close, we left with little grins on our faces. Nothing new was said about the 2024 election, nor did we discover how, exactly, this “conversation” benefited Public Policy students. However, we did learn something about ourselves. 

There was something intoxicating about seeing two esteemed and professionally accomplished alumni of the College spitball for an hour or two about whatever they wanted to, while also possibly under the influence. 

Our alumni programs declare that “[w]herever you live, whatever stage you are at in life, and however long it’s been since you visited Hanover, the Dartmouth alumni network is here for you.” Nevertheless, it can be hard for us as undergraduates to buy into the bromides when most of our peer-to-peer relationships from, say, 10pm on Friday to 4am on Sunday are, to say the least, preoccupied. 

But at Collis Common Ground, my friends and I were reminded that both Tapper and Katyal had run that gauntlet. They had not only survived it but thrived because of it (or so the Admissions Office’s pamphlets insist). 

If we got one take-away from “An Election on Trial,” it was that yes, you can spend your time at Dartmouth running Quick Sixes each weekend while gunning for internships that will certainly not give meaning to your life. You’ll still end up, 30-odd years later, as a trustee and beloved alumnus of the greatest liberal arts institution in the land.

Heck, maybe one day you’ll even get invited back to speak at Collis Common Ground alongside one of your classmates.