CNN’s Abby Phillip Torpedoes Trump Fan Over ‘Racist’ Charge: ‘It’s Definitely Not Just’ That One Post

CNN anchor Abby Phillip torpedoed Trump defender Lydia Moynihan for claiming President Donald Trump can’t be judged a “racist” based on “one of 30” social media posts from one night.

Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account at 11:44 PM on Thursday night that contains an image depicting President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes:

The post drew widespread outrage including from Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post in a statement:

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

But after 12 hours or so, the post was deleted, with an unnamed White House official claiming “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”

In remarks to reporters, Trump admitted having seen and approved posting the video, but claimed not to have seen the end of it.

On Friday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip discussed the issue with a panel comprised of Arthur Aidala, Ashley Allison, Lydia Moynihan, and Jamal Simmons.

When Moynihan claimed it would be unfair to say Trump is “racist because of 1 of 30 Truth Social posts,” Phillip objected:

PHILLIP: So, he’s acknowledging to some extent that he saw it, he gave it to his people for them to post and they posted it.

Lydia, when you hear that, you see the post, the long history that President Trump has, do you understand why many Americans believe that President Trump is a racist, full stop?

LYDIA MOYNIHAN: I mean, look, I think it was an inappropriate video. I’m glad that he took it down. I wish he would apologize. Hopefully, he still will. But it was clear that he posted about 32 socials and this moment came at the end of a minute- long clip. So, I think everything that you brought up is super important, but I don’t think that posting a video where there’s one second where he likely didn’t even see that part is the same or equivocal.

And I don’t think that you can say that he’s racist because of 1 of 30 Truth Social posts that he posted last night.

PHILLIP: But I don’t think it’s just the Truth Social posts. I mean, it’s definitely not just the Truth Social posts. And also he had an opportunity there to say — to condemn it, to speak to the American people about his values. He didn’t.

ASHLEY ALLISON: Yes. I mean, maybe he shouldn’t do 30 Truth Social posts first. That’s the first mistake. Maybe second mistake is that he should watch the whole thing before it comes from the White House video.

But, look, I think that as a person with eyes and ears, I’m not surprised that this is who Donald Trump is, but this is the problem, is that every time he does something that signifies racism, that signifies being a racist, the goalpost moves. It’s, oh, it shouldn’t have been 30.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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