Leigh McGowan, aka “PoliticsGirl” of podcast and YouTube fame, found a way to be heard above the tension on Abby Phillip’s CNN show Tuesday. (Watch the videos below.)
Many viewers criticized “NewsNight” for having a “Jerry Springer” vibe of people loudly talking over each other. But McGowan managed to land a few notable snaps at former Trump aide Marc Lotter and former George W. Bush adviser Scott Jennings.
Panelists were interrupting one another about accountability for the racist jokes told by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s Sunday rally. Lotter, a spokesperson for Trump’s 2020 campaign, tried to break the verbal stalemate by declaring, “Kamala Harris has nothing else to talk about, she’s gotta have grievance and the victims. She’s losing.”
McGowan had enough. “Oh my God, bro, what do you mean she has nothing else to talk about? Please stop saying that. I am begging you to stop saying that.”
The vice president, who’s the Democratic nominee, quickly capitalized on Hinchcliffe’s jab that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage” to emphasize Trump’s disrespect toward the U.S. territory. But in the stretch run of her campaign, she has made the case for her presidency on several fronts.
While it wasn’t the most substantive rebuttal, McGowan’s “bro” comeback won the hearts of some viewers.
In another exchange, this time with Jennings, McGowan clapped back vigorously when he tried to characterize Harris’ Washington speech as a “frantic” attack on Trump.
Calling attention to Jennings’ “smug” expression, she said:
“You’re totally overlooking what she has done here. She has brought together 100,000 people to say I look forward to the future. I will be a president for everyone and not just a president for the people that I like. And if you look at it in contrast to what we looked at at Madison Square Garden, which said, ‘Hey man, we don’t like you, we don’t like you, we don’t like you, we’re not for you, we’re not for you , we’re not for you.’ And she’s saying everyone is an American. Everyone will be taken care of.”
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She got props for that as well.
The antagonism on “CNN NewsNight” with Phillip followed Monday’s eviction of a right-wing guest who sarcastically wished fellow panelist Mehdi Hassan’s beeper wouldn’t go off in reference to the exploding beepers that injured or killed suspected Hezbollah operatives and others in Lebanon recently.