Left Fumes Over CNN Platforming ‘Vicious Far-Right Internet Troll’ In Sunglasses

Zachary LeemanFeb 29th, 2024, 2:59 pm
 

Some left-leaning viewers tuning into CNN on Thursday were downright shocked to not only find a conservative panelist who refused to remove his sunglasses, but also that this conservative happens to be the right-wing social media troll known as “Comfortably Smug.”

Smug, real name Shashank Tripathi, is a political consultant known primarily for his social media personality, which is mainly dedicated to mocking and trolling liberals. He was invited on for a panel discussion with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday, along with his fellow Ruthless podcast co-hosts Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook. The podcasters discussed Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stepping down from Senate leadership, and the latter three broke down some of their past work with McConnell on campaigns.

Whatever the discussion was, a swarm of critics appeared unable to get past the guy in the sunglasses.

Bash was chummy with the group and even invited them back at the end of the two segment interview. She also told Comfortably Smug there’d need to be a discussion about the sunglasses in a followup chat.

“Please come back. We have so much more to talk about. Also, Smug?” Bash said.

“Yes?”

“That’s your — I’m guessing your parents didn’t give you that name?” Bash asked.

“That’s what I’m known as and it makes me and everyone else happy,” he said.

“Okay, you have to come back because we’re running out of time to get into a discussion about the sunglasses,” Bash said before closing out the show.

As many critics as the happy troll got, he also got plenty of support with many conservatives noting the appearance was the first time they’ve wanted to tune into CNN in awhile. One even declared CNN to be “MAGA country.”

Watch above via CNN.

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Zachary Leeman

Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.