Things got wild on CNN’s NewsNight on Tuesday, February 17, when “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, known as “Mr. Wonderful” because of his less than friendly disposition, skewered the other guests and hosts on the program, bashing them as being “nuts” in a panel discussion that entertainingly spiralled out of control.
O’Leary, as background, is something of a conservative and a Trump supporter, and routinely spars with CNN as a result. In any case, the furious fight came up the context of the hosts and guests discussing and bickering over the 2020 election, which in turn led to CNN contributor Ana Navarro suddenly bringing up what she described as being misconduct in which the Trump Administration has been involved. Predictably, that set off O’Leary, who hammered them over the ridiculous claims.
Kicking off that furious part of the discussion by bringing up the chaotic situation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Navarro said, “We are seeing this happen over and over again where the federal government is fabricating things, lying. Just in the last few weeks, we have seen cases involving federal agents with a Venezuelan national in Minneapolis who they claimed had charged them with a snow shovel and attacked them.”
O’Leary wasn’t having it, and found her obfuscatory tactics utterly galling and infuriating. Firing back at her, O’Leary snapped, “What does that have to do with the ballot?!” Abby Phillip, another co-hosts of the CNN program, then interjected with some yelling of her own, demanding, “Stop, stop, stop.”
Navarro wasn’t done. Chiming in, she snapped that there are “government lies”, and that such is the “point”, though she didn’t connect the issues at all nor did she prove her point in the slightest. In any case, she said, “The point is that they charged them criminally and when they went to court, evidence proved that what they had said was a lie, that this government lies. That’s the point.”
O’Leary was still steaming, which led Phillip to try and regain control of the spiralling panel, which in turn offered O’Leary what she said could be “a quick last word.” As could be expected, Mr. Wonderful just poured fuel on the fire in response, snapping at his fellow panelists, “Oh, wow. My last word is you’re all nuts!”
Phillip then snapped at him and tried to keep a lid on the panel as it boiled over, angrily declaring, “Guys, please. Look, we got to keep it together here, okay? Honestly, I mean, there’s a way to talk about these things. If you don’t have anything to say, just say that and I won’t come to you next time.”
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But, as could be predicted, it didn’t end there. Instead, a berserk shouting match rolled on as O’Leary and Navarro hammered each other and Phillip tried to yell over them to steer the thing toward something of a conclusion, saying, “Excuse me! Excuse me! Stop! Kevin, stop!” He didn’t, and so she abruptly cut off things to a commercial, ending it.
Watch it here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video