A CNN panelist awkwardly rebuked Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary after he touched her during a fiery showdown about Elon Musk’s donations to GOP members of Congress who support President Trump’s impeachment calls against dissenting judges.
Angela Rye, the Native Land Pod host, was making the point that Musk’s donations—reported to be $6,600 each to seven Republicans—might contravene ethics guidelines because they were “quid pro quo” in exchange for favors from the recipients.
At this moment, with her co-panelist gesturing with his hands eager to make his point, she accuses O’Leary of touching her. Rye snaps at the businessman midway through a point, saying: “He literally tweeted to members of Congress...you don’t have to touch me!”
O’Leary responded that “I did that nicely,” to which Rye responded again: “I don’t want you to touch me.”
“I won’t ever do it again,” the businessman said.
Rye went on to make her point that Musk explicitly thanked the recipients of his donations on X.
“But he literally says, he literally, he says thank you to the members who introduced articles of impeachment,” she explained. “That is an exchange of value. That is a violation.”
Recovered from his slap-down, O’Leary took a different stance. He said: “Let’s talk about the two narratives going on simultaneously. The oldest profession on Earth is not prostitution; it’s politicians raising money.
“That has happened from the beginning of time. That’s going on forever and will continue forever. This issue around judges, this is pure politics. Get over it. This is what we live in today, every day.”
He added: “No laws have been broken. You don’t like it? Too bad.”
It comes after Musk put his hand in his pocket for Reps. Eli Crane of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, and Brandon Gill of Texas, as well as Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, according to the New York Times.
Gill introduced a resolution to impeach U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Tuesday, after an Obama-appointed judge blocked President Donald Trump from using a wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants who the president claims are gang members.
Trump called for the judge’s impeachment in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
Musk is hot on the idea of impeaching judges, too. Last week, he threw a tantrum after his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was dealt a series of legal setbacks, immediately calling for the impeachment of federal judges.
“Without judicial reform, which means at least the absolute worst judges get impeached, we don’t have real democracy in America,” Musk said on X.
He reacted after federal agencies were ordered on Thursday to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of federal workers with probationary status who had been laid off by DOGE.
Since then, he has repeated his pleas. “For more than two centuries, there has never such extreme abuse of the legal system by activists pretending to be judges. Impeach them,” he wrote on X Wednesday.
