Really, what’s worth watching in this clip is anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin’s reaction to the headware’s glittery awesomeness. For the first half of the interview, you can totally tell what’s going on in his mind. I mean, I’m not psychic, but I imagine his thought process went something like this:

“Whoa. What’s the deal with the hat? I should say something…Eh, I don’t know. I don’t want to insult her…But everyone’s going to be thinking about the hat. I need to say something!…But she’s a Congresswoman. I can’t mock her clothes…Maybe it’s just a Florida thing. Maybe it’s a Florida thing and, if I insult it, Squawk Box will lose all our Florida viewers. We’ve actually been doing pretty well in Florida…Yeah, I won’t mention it…Let’s just go back to the conversation…Now, what were we talking about here?…OK, WHAT THE F**K IS UP WITH THAT F**KING HAT?!?”

Finally, around the three and a half minute mark, Sorkin couldn’t take it any longer, making an awkward joke about Mack needing to get a hat of his own. It wasn’t perfect but at least it deflated some of the hat-related tension. Some of it. That hat was still there. Mocking him. Mocking all of us.

Eventually, the segment ended. “See ya, homeboy!” said Wilson as her sign off (seriously!). She then left, taking the amazing hat with her.

Watch the clip from CNBC below:

Co-hosts Joe Kernen and Becky Quick joked with Andrew Ross Sorkin about how, after witnessing how far to the left Europe can be, he might even begin to embrace capitalism.

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Later, Quick characterized a European hotel as not being “run-down, just European.”

Here’s part 1, via CNBC:

And here’s part 2, where the two attempt to explain that it’s not that they dislike Europe, it’s just that it has hotels held together by old chewing gum and dying hope:

On CNBC, the decision by Standard and Poors to downgrade America’s AAA status got some support from PIMCO managing director Neel Kashkari, who said on Squawk Box that until Republicans and Democrats show an ounce of backbone and actually do what is in the interest of the American people, rather their what is in their own immediate political interests, I can’t argue with S&P’s conclusion.”

Kashkari says it’s “just a matter of time” before the U.S. gets downgraded by the other key rating agencies:

It is just a matter of time that Moody’s and Fitch follow S&P’s lead. I think anybody that analyzes the U.S. deficit situation and our trajectory has to conclude that we are not truly AAA today.

Watch it here, from CNBC:

Earlier, when Joe Kernen attempted to joke about comments reportedly made in a Democratic meeting comparing members of the Tea Party to “terrorists,” Harwood seemed confused, asking Kernen, “are you still high from last night?”

Watch it here, from CNBC:

In an interview on CNBC this morning, Donald Trump described the weekend debt deal as “a joke” that ultimately doesn’t solve the nation’s economic problems. Trump told Squawk Box‘s Joe Kernan “eventually you have to balance the budget, and this is a long way from balancing the budget, it’s a joke. It’s a down payment at best.” Trump said President Obama did get something “that was fantastic…because he got the deal past the election…the fact is, if this were going on sometime prior to the election, he would have zero chance of re-election.”

Trump suggested to Obama, pushing any debt debate until after the 2012 election–not dealing with the economy–was the President’s key objective. “That was the only thing he was fighting for. He was fighting for that harder than anything else.”

On this morning’s edition of

The conversation was directed specifically to recently-named Squawk Box co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin, who is also known as a well regarded financial reporter for Fox News enemy The NY Times. While there are likely individuals that exist in the the world who believe that Fox News should be prosecuted “just for the way that they present the news,” as Kernen suggests, those individuals are also likely to be taken as seriously as the tin foil hats that protect them from Fox’s mind-control signals. In other words, Kernen makes a classic straw man argument in an effort to go to bat for his competitor, Fox News.

Watch the clip below, courtesy of CNBC:

(H/T Gabe Sherman)

An internal memo sent out to CNBC staff explained that Sorkin is replacing former co-host Carl Quintanilla, who left the program earlier this week for the network’s morning show Squawk on the Street, a position he took after the immediate departure of Erin Burnett to CNN in April and the recent death of longtime CNBC anchor Mark Haines.

CNBC senior vice president Nikhil Deogun sent out the internal memo to network employees earlier today.

Replacing Carl on Squawk Box is no easy task, but we are thrilled to announce that Andrew Ross Sorkin is joining the CNBC team to co-host Squawk Box every morning with Joe and Becky…

As a CNBC contributor, Andrew has long been an extended member of both the CNBC and Squawk families, and we’re pleased he will now be a part of our morning team… Andrew will continue to write his widely read column for The New York Times, which has an online partnership with CNBC, as well as help oversee DealBook, the online news site he founded.

Sorkin has written for the Times and edited the site’s DealBook for over ten years, but it was his 2010 book Too Big To Fail, his story of how the global financial crisis began, that catapuled him into the financial spotlight. The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for roughly six months, and was adapted into an HBO TV movie that was released this May.

Sorkin is the latest newspaper columnist taking on a contributing role at a major news network, following in the footsteps of journalists such as The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein, who also works as a contributor for MSNBC. However, none of these columnists host cable news programs, so Sorkin, with his new role as permanent co-host, will have more responsibilities for his network and the Times than most other columnists on television.

Sorkin tells Mediaite he’s looking forward to his new role at the network:

“I’ve been watching Squawk for years. The opportunity to be part of the conversation every morning is unbelievably exciting. I’m going to have to start going to bed very early! Between Squawk in the morning and writing for The New York Times, there are going to be some long days. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

In Thursday morning’s papers, all led with Murdoch’s decision to surrender his bid to take complete control of British pay TV company BSkyB–except Murdoch’s Sun. Suggestions that Murdoch might try to “stop the contagion” by selling off his U.K. papers, Tausche reports, could be complicated should the scandal spread to Murdoch’s U.S. media properties.

The Squawk Box panel questioned whether American viewers would turn off Fox News over the scandal, but thought that any proof that any Murdoch papers hacked the phones of American terror victims could shift public opinion quickly. “If there’s a 9/11 victim’s thing, I think you could see people really revolt.”

Watch it here, from CNBC:

Usually when a business news network busts out the six-box, that means a lot of analysts on the screen at once, talking about some super scary financial news. Today, well, it was about Carl Quintanilla‘s dreamy haircut–and his new job. Starting today, Quintanilla and Melissa Lee take over hosting duties on the network’s Squawk on the Street, filling chairs left empty by the death of Mark Haines and departure of Erin Burnett, whose new CNN show is slated to debut in late September.

Discussing the new morning team on CNBC, Joe Kernan explained Quintanilla moves off Squawk Box, and Jim Cramer will appear in the 9 a.m. edition of Squawk on the Street.

Watch it here, from CNBC:

June unemployment figures released this morning show unemployment rose to 9.2 percent, the highest rate since December, and analysts on CNBC were blunt: “any way you cut this data, it’s lousy.” The jobs data left the CNBC panel “stunned” and, as Rick Santelli described it, “we’re somewhere between a soft patch and a double dip.” The report dampened expectations many had about the recovery, and raised the possibility of a push for more stimulus to spur growth–and hiring.

The jobs report is already having an impact on the markets, with equity futures dropping sharply.

Watch it here, from CNBC:

Rep. Ron Paul finally feels like part of the family. The perennial presidential candidate tells CNBC his days as a GOP outsider are over. “I finally feel like a Republican,” Paul said in an interview on Squawk Box. The conversation about markets, entitlements and money turned to politics when Squawk Box anchor Joe Kernan asked Paul what it would take for him to become “more mainstream” and to appeal to enough Republicans to have a “viable chance” to win the GOP nomination. Paul said, “I happen to think I’m mainstream.”

Paul said issues like balancing the budget have become mainstream issues, and “compared to four years ago, it’s incredibly different for me, because people are moving to the position of being mainstream.” Paul argued that his support among voters might be stronger now than Bill Clinton‘s was at this time in the 92 campaign. Paul said his organization in Iowa is far stronger than it was four years ago, and where he was ignored and cut from debates, now he says debates look like Ron Paul rallies.

Watch it here, from CNBC:

On CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday, Rick Santelli ranted about members of Congress–and members of the media–who’ve criticized the reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives.

In an amazing display of sarcasm, Santelli went off on the critics–including The New York Times–who’ve objected to the reading of the Constitution as either too expensive or too self-indulgent:

Oh my God. We’re wasting so much money. You know this reading stuff is way overrated–whether it’s the Constitution–or reading scores in the U.S., or reading bills. A complete waste of time–come on. This is the digital age.

Pressed by Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen about a New York Times editorial calling the Congressional reading of the Constitution “a presumptuous and self-righteous act,” Santelli knocked the “hypocrisy” of members of Congress who objected to the reading:

You know what then – here’s what I want to know – then why did they all swear to that when they took their jobs yesterday? What a bunch of hypocrites.

Watch it here, from CNBC:

(h/t The Daily Caller)

From CNBC:

“’My solution is that you take a guy like Timothy Geithner and put him in a new reality show. It’s called ‘Timothy Geithner Does Small Business’, something like [the porn movie] ‘Debbie Does Dallas’, and it ends up the same way,” said Marcus. ‘Basically, what they’re doing to small business is very similar in this case [to what ‘Debbie’ did to Dallas.]‘

To play out his story, Marcus said Geithner would have to deal with the state, federal and local regulations that he contends stymie business, and then the public official may understand the challenges that small business people face.

Hyperbole aside, Marcus said the administration’s poor performance warrants the Democrats being voted out of office. He did not, however, call for Geithner to resign.”

On the Politics board over at Reddit, the users have been taking some offense at these comments, pointing out that Marcus might not understand small businesses that well. At the very least his company might not considering the time they lost a lawsuit for stealing a contractor’s invention and all the allegations that they forced employees to create fake damage claims and backcharges that totally screwed, you guessed it, small businesses. Whether or not those allegations are true, I’m mostly offended that Marcus completely misconstrued the plot of Debbie Does Dallas. Everyone who’s anyone knows that Debbie neither visits or actually “does” anyone from Dallas in that film. Or, at least, everyone who wrote a college thesis paper on pornography of the 1970s in college knows that (don’t ask, although I did get a great grade on that thing).

Still though, Marcus promises he understands small business owners because he “hangs around” with them (and, hoo boy, does he have a lot of stories to prove it). Besides, he may really be onto something with those ideas. The Obama one might be tough even though we’d all love to see him act out Jasmine’s story arc from Aladdin, but the Geithner reality show would be great! It’d be just like The Simple Life but with (hopefully) less revealing outfits. At the very least, Marcus has hit a gold mine with this political reality show idea. Who wouldn’t watch a Big Brother style “locked in a house” show with the likes of Basil Marceaux and Phil Davison as roommates? Throw in Steven Slater and you’ve got a ratings winner!

I mean, it couldn’t be any less dignified than Dancing with the Stars.

In the rush to get “the get,” FBN attempted an ambush interview, along with CNBC and likely others, of new GM CEO Ed Whitacre – that partially aired on their competitor.

The networks were at GM’s headquarters in Detroit, and just after 10amET Whitacre emerged, heading to the podium. Both FBN and CNBC cut to the moment – but FBN’s Adam Shapiro was hammering Whitacre with questions. What started with “Why don’t we talk after this,” became, “We’ll talk later,” over and over again. All of this aired on FBN – and basically amounted to a lot of questions and zero answers.

But it also aired on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Mark Haines set it up: “Not sure what we’re looking at but let’s go there and see what we can hear.” What they could hear was very little – but what they could see was the same attempted interview between Shapiro of FBN and Whitacre. And then there was quite a bit of awkwardness. Both videos of 10:02amET are below.

CNBC’s Phil LeBeau did eventually catch up with Whitacre later in the hour, at around 10:50amET. It too was an unplanned interview, as he grabbed the new CEO for a quick Q&A. FBN aired the makeshift presser Whitacre held (and Shapiro attended) 10 minutes later.

In the business network battle for “gets,” FBN did get one victory today – they had an exclusive interview with Ford CEO Alan Mulally – exclusive, we hear, because CNBC did not want to go 2nd so canceled their interview.

Here’s the CNBC video from today, and below, the FBN video:

And here’s the FBN video:

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Santelli, whose famous rant in February became a media sensation, seemed to have some major problems with what his colleague had to say – and vice versa.

The fight really escalated when Liesman told Santelli to “stand behind your words,” and Santelli yelled back, “I will stand behind my words!”

Then there was a lot of arguing about “retail sales numbers” and discussing which person didn’t know anything about “emergency claims benefits.” Really though, just a lot of shouting. “You don’t say anything I find interesting to hear,” said Santelli, midway through the discussion.

Santelli himself brought up his most famous moment: “10 months ago I had a rant. Nobody talks about it. Replay it, let’s see who history says is more correct.” (Nobody talks about it? It’s all Jon Stewart talked about for weeks.)

A quick search seems to show these two have been fighting since last week on Squawk Box.

Here’s today’s Squawk Box fight:

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But Schwab kept their sponsorships of other CNBC programs. One of those was Squawk Box, which wanted to make it very clear yesterday they are fans of the company.

In what appears to be a direct response to last week’s story, Joe Kernen joked about his love of the company (via a tipster):

And how did the “Porn” doc do? It was the second highest rated documentary premiere ever on CNBC.

The exploration into vice that topped Wednesday’s premiere: “Marijuana Inc,” which had almost double the viewership. So you heard it here first, folks: pot is better than porn.

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