CNN’s Abby Phillip Mocks Fox News Hosts ‘Losing Their Minds’ Over Politics In Sports — Now Praising ‘Trump Dance’ Celebration

CNN host Abby Phillip highlighted the “big turnaround” at right-leaning Fox News by running a supercut of past instances when the network’s hosts slammed “politics in sports” by attacking players who wore pride colors or were “taking the knee” during the national anthem and are now praise those celebrating with an imitation of President-elect Donald Trump’s rally dance.

On the campaign trail, Trump’s on-stage dance drew lots of attention, moving his arms back and forth, and up and down to songs like “YMCA” by The Village People. Since Trump’s selection victory several high profile athletes, like Ultimate Fighting Championship athlete Jon Jones, have performed the president-elect’s signature move when scoring or winning.

Opening the debate on NewsNight on Tuesday, Phillip took aim at Fox News hosts and observed their “turnaround” in reaction to political displays on the sportsfield that lean left and those that lean right.

Introducing the cut, the host began: “Sports has never been politics free, and they aren’t now. And just as an example, suddenly you’re seeing a lot of athletes doing this [dance]. It’s their version of Donald Trump doing his version of [comedian] Conan O’Brien’s string dance despite looking like a dad without much rhythm at a bar mitzvah. Republicans have revealed reveled in this culture war crossover.”

The first run of clips showed Fox News hosts Jesse Watters and Laura Ingraham praising the sports stars for their “infectious courage.”

“The stigma has moved from MAGA to anti-MAGA,” Watters commented.

Pivoting to commentary in recent years, Phillip then ran a series of clips that showed Fox News hosts slamming athletes, like correspondent Anita Vogul and Ingraham again, calling for the “separation of sports and state” as well as telling players speaking up on political issues to “shut up and dribble.”

Phillip commented: “To be honest, I’m not sure people are losing their minds over players doing the Trump dance on the field. It’s fine. But they did lose their minds when NFL players like Colin Kaepernick did not take a political stance, but took a social justice stance, there’s a distinction between those two things. It is interesting that there’s been this big turnaround, it seems.”

Watch above on CNN.