‘We Gotta Go! Stop Talking!’ CNN Fracas Erupts Just As Abby Phillip Tries To Hit Commercial Break
CNN anchor Abby Phillip had to quiet her studio panel when a fracas broke out over Pete Hegseth — President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to run the Department of Defense — just as she was trying to toss to a commercial break.
Hegseth’s chances of being confirmed have been hampered by a series of scandalous stories about a rape allegation, a 2018 email from his mother in which she called him “an abuser of women,” a devastating whistleblower report, and allegations of excessive drinking, including on the job.
Phillip’s program has become a frequent source of ideological free-for-alls between provocative and ideologically opposed regular panelists and guests. On Thursday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip’s panel included Scott Jennings, Maria Cardona, Anthony Tarallucci, John Brabender, and Mondaire Jones.
Jennings and Brabender portrayed Hegseth as the victim of a pile-on, and Brabender touched off a melee by claiming “a bunch of Democrat senators are trying to make a public relations campaign out of it”:
JENNINGS: So, what I would recommend is that he continue to fight for his own reputation, that we get to a hearing, and we put everybody under oath, and then we see where the chips fall. He’s got two fights. One is reputational. One is also, can you do the job? And so he’s fighting a two-front battle in the Senate, and that’s a real thing, and he needs to cross those lines.
PHILLIP: A hearing of all the allegations against him.
SCARAMUCCI: That’s very bad for the president.
PHILLIP: Yes.
SCARAMUCCI: What’s Scott’s saying might be good for Pete Hegseth but it’s very bad for the president. If you were in the room with the —
JENNINGS: Why? It’s his guy.
SCARAMUCCI: He’s very frustrated by this. He has to be. I mean, I know the guy. The mother went after the guy and they had the mother in like a hostage crisis on Fox News backing out of what he said about her own son. And trust me, the thing that blew him up with Donald Trump is what the mother said about him. Because I know Trump, and I know exactly how he thinks about this stuff. And so he’s upset, he doesn’t want to be the guy to pull the string on him. But right now, Pete Hegseth said, I’m done, Donald Trump would be relieved by that. He’s got another person waiting in the wings that’s qualified.
PHILLIP: It is now a good time —
SCARAMUCCI: And this would be very bad for the president to be putting this guy in a show trial like that.
PHILLIP: Yes, the —
SCARAMUCCI: Very bad for him.
PHILLIP: Speaking of waiting in the wings, President Trump’s going to go to the Army-Navy game and he’s also going to be there with Ron DeSantis, who’s reportedly —
JENNINGS: It’s fine to have a plan B.
PHILLIP: — one of the other people who’s being considered here.
JENNINGS: I just think, you know, the president wants this guy. He was a nontraditional pick because Donald Trump’s a nontraditional president. He’s not going to pick the regular Washington establishment types. And when you — and when you —
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Don’t hurt the president by doing that to him, though.
JENNINGS: The president made the choice. Hegseth didn’t show up today and declare that he was going to be Secretary of Defense. This was Trump’s choice.
SCARAMUCCI: I don’t think all of that stuff was declared to Donald Trump.
MARIA CARDONA: Did they know about all this?
JENNINGS: No, but I’ll tell you what Donald Trump does know about. People piling on with garbage after garbage after garbage and never feeling like you get the chance to repair your own reputation. He does know a lot about that.
JOHN BRABENDER: Yes, and he’s not going to blink. He’s not going to just blink because a bunch of Democrat senators are trying to make a public relations campaign out of it.
(INTENSE CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: It would be — it would be — everyone, stick around. Hold on. We got to go. Stop talking. Coming up next, DOGE — we got to go. DOGE is the new department
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
