CNN’s Abby Phillip on Wednesday night gave one of her male guests an on-air reprimand after he called a female panelist “dear” during a heated discussion.
On CNN NewsNight, the panel was discussing investigations into alleged sexual misconduct by Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman whom President-elect Donald Trump has nominated for attorney general. The show also aired a leaked diagram reportedly prepared by federal investigators which allegedly shows payments between Gaetz and others, including women who testified that he hired them for sex. Gaetz denies all wrongdoing.
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“The bottom line is the DOJ said there’s nothing there,” said Bruce LeVell, the former executive director of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump.
“No they didn’t,” Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist, interrupted. “They said they didn’t have enough to indict—that shouldn’t be the standard.”
“No, to charge, dear,” LeVell responded, prompting an immediate protest from Roginsky. “Dear? Excuse me?” she said.
“Hold on, I’m going to stop it right here,” host Abby Phillip said. “Because we’re not going to get off on a wrong foot. Please do not address a grown woman as ‘dear’ in a condescending tone. Do not do that at my table.”
“OK,” LeVell said, looking down at the floor during the rebuke. Phillip then moved the discussion on by going to another guest for their thoughts.
The Justice Department told Gaetz last year that he would not be charged in connection with a yearslong sex trafficking investigation. A separate House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged wrongdoing effectively ended when Gaetz resigned from Congress after Trump nominated him for attorney general, though the panel is currently facing calls from senators and others to share their findings anyway.
This isn’t LeVell’s first dressing-down on a CNN panel. In August, anchor Laura Coates admonished him for talking over her during a discussion about Trump’s comments questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention.
Phillip is also no stranger to dealing with panelists’ controversial behavior. Last month, she was leading a roundtable discussion about the Israel-Hamas war when guest Ryan Girdusky said to Mehdi Hasan “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” alluding to Israel’s attack in Lebanon in which pagers used by members of the militia Hezbollah exploded.
Girdusky was removed from the show and CNN released a statement confirming he would be banned from the network because there was “zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air.”
