Things on CNN spiraled into anger and chaos when a panel hosted by CNN anchor Abby Phillip turned into a massive spat after Republican personality Scott Jennings brought up allegations against Vice President and 2024 Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, regarding an assault he allegedly committed in 2012.
The panel was meant to discuss recent comments made by rapper Eminem, who had recently criticized former President Donald Trump during a rally in Detroit, Michigan, a critical battleground state and part of the Democratic Party’s Blue Wall. In that rally, Eminem appeared alongside former President Barack Obama.
Jennings, commenting on Eminem’s music and his comments about the former president noted that some of his lyrics involve violence against women. He said, first saying that Eminem hadn’t really made much of a difference, “I think he didn’t move the numbers. I think this Eminem thing—I gotta tell you—this campaign is…”
Continuing, he got to the matter regarding the treatment of women, saying, “So, everything that’s said about Donald Trump and his treatment of women and the gender gap in this campaign—this rapper, who I fully admit sold a lot of records, if you’ve read some of the things he has said about the promotion of domestic violence.”
Pivoting from the rapper to allegations regarding Emhoff, Jennings then noted the alleged assault and connected it to the music of the Harris promoter, saying, “When you think about the things he has said in order to sell those records, and you also consider some of the questions that are swirling around Harris his own husband in this regard.”
Predictably, the CNN panel exploded in outrage after Jennings noted the accusations. Amongst those who freaked out was CNN’s Bakari Sellers, who chimed in and snapped, “Oh my God! OK, you don’t even get 12 seconds. I’m not gonna let you go into the far end of B.S…I can’t represent you in the defamation case, Scott.”
Jennings then responded to the interruption by saying, “If you could just give me 13 seconds…” Phillip then cut things to commercials and said, “We’re gonna stop here for a second. Alright, but Scott, I just have to say, I’ll take those concerns seriously if you also express concerns about the allegations [against Trump]. He’s been found liable of rape, Donald Trump has. So that’s also true, so we’re not going to litigate those other things, but you can’t just pick and choose.”
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Watch the panel explode here:
As background, the allegations of the alleged slap came from a scandalous report published in the British tabloid, the Daily Mail. According to that shocking report in the Daily Mail, now-second gentleman Doug Emhoff “forcefully slapped ex-girlfriend for flirting with another man” at the Cannes Film Festival back in 2012.
The second gentleman has denied the allegations entirely. In a statement released to Semafor, the global news platform, a spokesperson for Mr. Emhoff claimed that “this report is untrue,” referring ot the allegations published by the Daily Mail, and that “any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”
Featured image credit: By The White House – https://x.com/VP/status/1802341630709469455, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150903689