CNN Anchor Agrees ‘Both Sides’ To Blame For ‘Batshit’ Trump Conspiracy Post

CNN anchor Abby Phillip mocked President Donald Trump’s “batshit” conspiracy post, but agreed with a panelist that “both sides” are to blame for the culture that encourages this sort of thing.

Trump caused a stir with a social media post promoting the baseless conspiracy theory that “There is no #JoeBiden – executed in 2020. #Biden clones doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see. #Democrats dont know the difference.”

On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip was joined by a panel consisting of former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, political consultant Shermichael Singleton, and Weekly Standard founder Bill Kristol.

Phillip couldn’t suppress a laugh as she introduced the topic, and challenged Kristol when he asserted that Trump “doesn’t believe” what he posted.

But she did agree with Sununu that “both sides are definitely to blame,” saying his argument “is definitely fair in the sense that Democrats do believe in conspiracies” and giving “imposter Melania Trump” as an example:

ABBY PHILLIP: For two months, all the attention’s been on the mental acuity of the previous president. And while the scrutiny is justified, what about the current president? After all, he’s pushing a batshit (ph) conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with a clone robot. Bill is back with us at the table. I cannot believe I just read those words.

BILL KRISTOL: I can’t either. Now, I —

PHILLIP: Replaced with a robot?

KRISTOL: Trump doesn’t believe it. He’s cynical. He has a lot of people who love conspiracy theories in his — among his supporters. He pays no price for the supporters who don’t believe any of that nonsense by tweeting it.

And some people get revved up and decide Trump’s our guy. So, he — and he does it to provoke, obviously, us at all, but —

PHILLIP: He — he certainly does.

KRISTOL: Trump does not believe it.

PHILLIP: However, I — I will say, he has a lot —

KRISTOL: Cynical con man who knows how to speak to a lot of people, but the conspiracists are a big part of the Trump administration.

PHILLIP: Well, he is a — he is a conspiracist. I mean, he has a long history going all the way back to the birther conspiracy and, you know, the 2020 election conspiracy. I mean, he’s big on this stuff.

KRISTOL: He didn’t believe it. I mean, he used it to —

PHILLIP: I don’t know. I can’t say whether he believed it or not, honestly.

UNKNOWN: Russiagate.

JOHN SUNUNU: I — do you think the Democrats are conspiracy theorists? Nothing on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Russia — Russia influenced the election. They were — but they were — I mean, come on. Both sides are are — are definitely to blame.

PHILLIP: Yeah.

SUNUNU: And when it comes to a robot, this would have been the worst functioning robot in history if –if Joe Biden was a robot. I mean, it must have been made and built in China, at a minimum.

PHILLIP: Your argument — your argument is — is definitely fair in the sense that Democrats do believe in conspiracies, although I’m not sure the two examples are the best ones. The best one might be the fake Melania conspiracy, which Trump actually denounced in a post on social media. He says that the conspiracy was that there were photoshopped pictures of Melania, claiming that it wasn’t really her at his side. So, that — that is also similar to the robot, I suppose.

RO KHANNA: You know, the most —

PHILLIP: Body double is the other one, I think.

No elected Democrat — let alone the president — promoted the Melania conspiracy.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.