CNN’s Phillip calls out far-left outrage over MAGA guests on her show, warns not to ignore ‘half the country’
CNN host Abby Phillip pushed back on critics from the left, arguing they fail to understand how important it is to engage with the MAGA movement that remains a powerful force in American politics.
During a discussion about civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, “Breakfast Club” radio host Charlamagne tha God joked with Phillip that she has built something of a “rainbow coalition” of diverse voices on her show, something she argued serves a public good.
“People are very easy to be like, ‘Well she shouldn’t give this person a platform,’ ‘She shouldn’t do this,’ ‘She shouldn’t do that,’ And I do think it’s super easy to say that when you’re just at home like watching the clips on your phone,” she said of her critics.
“I get a lot of criticism from the left, from people who are like ‘Why does she have MAGA people on the show?’ and it’s like, well, you should know what they are saying,” she said.
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“Yeah, I agree,” Charlamagne replied.
Phillip continued, appearing to say what she would reply to such critics, “Just so you know, half the country voted for Trump and for Trumpism and it’s not helpful to be completely unaware of what is happening in those media ecosystems.”
Phillip added that a surprising takeaway from her show is that “a lot of people aren’t used to being challenged. When someone looks them in the eye and says, ‘I disagree with you,’ some are really taken aback — they don’t know how to deal with that.”
Later in the same interview, Phillip brought up the tense discussion with gay and conservative-friendly fitness guru Jillian Michaels, who has a Black adopted daughter, about the history of slavery.
Phillip herself has referred to slavery in religious terms as America’s “original sin.”
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After noting to Charlamagne the importance of people being allowed to voice controversial opinions, Phillip also argued:
“I also think it does not do us any favors to pretend like a lot of people don’t agree with Jillian Michaels and that it’s an opportunity for us to correct the record, to educate, to inform, to put facts on the table,” she said, “And I know – can I be real? I know Black people who agree with Jillian Michaels. I’ve heard and not just recently. Her talking point about how slavery existed all in the world and we overemphasize it here in the United States. I have had Black people say that to me, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago.”
Charlamagne agreed on the idea that it is important to allow both sides to speak and keep people informed about what others in their same country believe.
“The media is so fragmented right now. Everybody is consuming media in their own silos. And a lot of people on the left, liberals or whatever, they have no idea what’s being said in those conservative ecosystems,” Phillip warned. “And one of the things that we do is sort of try to merge those information lanes a little bit more so that we’re actually hearing each other and so that you’re not blindsided because there’s a whole other world that’s happening over here that you don’t even know about and you don’t find out about until people vote. And by that point, it’s too late.”
