CNN’s Abby Phillip Clashes With MAGA Pundit Emily Austin Over Michelle Obama

The April 14 episode of CNN’s NewsNight With Abby Phillip took an explosive turn when host Abby Phillip brought up recent comments Michelle Obama made on a podcast. Specifically, the panel discussed Obama saying that America is in its “janky era” under President Donald Trump.

Phillip played clips of conservative journalists slamming Obama for her comments. “I guess maybe there’s a bit of a short memory because these are all the things the current president in the White House has said about the country,” she pointed out, before playing a montage of footage of Trump making negative comments about the country.

One of the roundtable guests, Emily Austin, a sports journalist and conservative podcaster, jumped in to give her take. “I don’t care what Michelle Obama said and honestly it’s really not that big of a deal, but I continued to listen to it because it was the topic tonight,” she began. “She went on to say, ‘I’m really digging how people are responding to this administration,’ and that really bothered me. I don’t know if you’re turning on other news channels, but Charlie Kirk was murdered, Savannah Hernandez was beat up by a fat, angry man in Minnesota…”

At that point, Phillip calmly interjected and asked, “You think she was talking about Charlie Kirk being murdered when she said that?” and Austin replied, “No, but she went on to say how people are resisting the administration…”

The rest of the roundtable exploded on Austin. Although Phillip tried to get everyone to take things down a notch, the guests began speaking over each other. “Emily, I’m sorry, but let’s not be ridiculous,” Phillip eventually said, to which Austin insisted, “I think I’m being very rational.”

Phillip continued, “She is obviously not talking about Charlie Kirk’s murder. She is talking about people using their constitutional rights to protest.” As Phillip tried to make her point, she was continuously interrupted by her guest, which led to more chaos at the table.

Sarah Matthews, a former White House Deputy Press Secretary under Trump, finally said, “I found what she was saying to be incredibly hopeful. She’s saying no matter how bleak it is right now, she’s betting on the power of America and that we can always course correct.”

Viewers were disgruntled by Emily’s appearance and took to Reddit afterwards to express their disdain. One user referred to her as “so self important,” and criticized Phillip for having “zero control” over her.

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“It seems like cnn is confusing opinion with expertise. I don’t need to hear someone’s personal opinion on these things with no experience, no evidence, and no data to back it up,” someone else commented, and another person said, “Why do they have a 24 year old sports podcaster on this show?” Another viewer also added, “This panel is the B team. Why are we listening to Emily Austin? Cuz she has a podcast. Great.”

CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip, Weeknights, 10/9c, CNN