Things exploded on CNN when a guest on CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five slandered President Donald Trump with a throwaway comment, leading to the host of the show stepping in to shut down that part of the conversation and argue that the comments made by the guest were not something CNN is arguing, a clear attempt to protect the network from liability.
For reference, the panel of five was composed of host Kate Bolduan and guests Angie Wong, Miles Taylor, Lance Trover, and a podcast host named Touré. It was Touré who sparked the crisis by blurting out an allegation that President Donald Trump “might be a pedophile,” leading to an eruption from the other guests and Bolduan.
The spat began when Angie Wong, commenting on the Epstein allegations surrounding President Trump, which have been discredited, “Really guys, we’re going to recycle something that’s been dead for so long, no one cares about this stuff, they care about, you know, real American voters, we care about affordability and other real things, not about Epstein.”
Continuing, she noted that Democrats need to focus on delivering wins for the American people rather than just salacious rumors, saying, “Yes, it’s salacious, yes there’s sex and girls and powerful politicians, but quite honestly, I don’t care about it but now we have to flip the narrative because Democrats had a loss. I think this has been recycled too many times.”
That’s when Touré jumped in and sparked the crisis, angrily snapping, “This is kind of a bizarre position. You don’t care that the president might be a pedophile? You don’t care that the–.” As that allegation is slanderous, given that it has been discredited, the whole panel erupted in response.
Angie Wong, cutting off Touré and leading the verbal counterattack, said, “No, he’s not a pedophile. No, no, no.” Similarly, the host jumped in and shut down Touré, snapping, trying to end that part of the discussion before things got worse for the network, “There’s no evidence of that at all.”
Touré, not going along with them and trying to keep the conversation going, said, “No, there’s no evidence of it, but that’s what…” Guest Lance Trover, chiming in an interruption Touré, said, “That is absolutely insane!” Touré replied, “No, it’s not insane. That’s what we’ve been talking about all week.”
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Bolduan, angrily shutting it down, said, “There is no evidence of that. We’re not going to… we are not seeing that. No, but that’s what the emails have been talking about. That’s what we’d been talking about all week. That’s why he doesn’t want to release the files. And to say that nobody cares is kind of absurd.”
Touré then said, “If the president is a pedophile, we should know about it, and people would care about that.” Bolduan, again shutting it down, said, “No one is suggesting that President Trump is a pedophile.The nobody cares element of it is part of the issue, which is basically the entire Trump cabinet had said that they wanted these files released.” Bolduan added, “So that is the problem that they have now. I mean, you’ve got, you have the president saying that he wants to see an investigation.”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video