CNN Anchor Flat-Out Calls Trump Liar Over Bonkers Jesus Post: ‘He Deleted It and Lied About It’

CNN anchor Abby Phillip flat-out called President Donald Trump a liar over his excuse for a Truth Social post that drew condemnation from even some of his closest allies.

The president sparked anger among MAGA figures and others with a now-deleted post depicting himself as Jesus — which he claimed he thought carried medical connotations rather than messianic ones. The post comes not long after a since-deleted White House event at which attendees compared Trump to Jesus.

On Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip hosted a panel that included Bakari Sellers, Noah Rothman, Leigh McGowan, Hal Lambert, Margaret Donovan, and Father Edward Beck.

When Father Beck suggested Trump should have simply admitted making a “mistake,” Phillip interjected that “He deleted it but then lied about it”:

PHILLIP: Tonight, an uncharacteristic move by President Trump after significant blowback from both the left and the right, he’s now deleted this A.I.-generated post depicting himself as Jesus. But according to him, that isn’t the likeness of Jesus. And he’s surprised that anyone would think otherwise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It wasn’t depiction. It was me. I did first it and I thought it was me as a doctor. And it had to do with Red Cross as a Red Cross worker there, which we support. And only the fake news could come up with that one. So, I had — I just heard about it and I said, how did they come up with that? It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: But tonight, Vice President, J.D. Vance had a different explanation. He said, Trump is just trying to be funny.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I think the president was posting a joke, and, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case. I think the president of the United States likes to mix it up on social media, and I actually think that’s one of the good things about this president is that he is not filtered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Father Edward Beck is here with us at the table.

Father Beck is this a funny joke? It seems like most people didn’t take it that way.

FATHER EDWARD BECK, CHAPLAIN, MANHATTAN UNIVERSITY: Well, I think rightly so. What doctor have you ever seen with light waves coming out of his hands to heal someone and raised from heaven coming down blessing him in red and white garments? I mean, the president, I think, is being disingenuous, quite frankly, by saying he thinks it was a doctor’s image he was posting. There’s no Red Cross image in the photograph. There’s an image of a nurse in a blue uniform, but nothing about the Red Cross. So, I just think all of his comments did not follow what everybody else saw.

And for J.D. Vance to say it was simply him being humorous, I think, well, which was it? If he was trying to be humorous, most people didn’t get it. So, basically, we’re blaming people for not getting his humor and the liberal media for not getting it? I just think you always put the blame somewhere else, but why not just say, look, I made a mistake. I posted the wrong thing. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done it. I just think that would be more reasonable.

PHILLIP: He deleted it but then lied about it–.

MCGOWAN: That’s not who he is. I mean, I think we have to get to the point where we’re like, when are the lies enough lies? When do the people of America who support this man say, this is enough lies? Like, quite clearly, everyone who’s ever dressed up for Halloween knows if you’re a doctor, you put on a white coat and a stethoscope, like that’s the doctor costume, not the Jesus costume, which is what Donald Trump put himself out being. And it’s putting himself in the place of God, not with God, in the place of God.

I think the bigger issue here is that Trump’s behavior from the whole week is that he’s not mentally fit to be in this position right now. He threatened 90 million people with instantaneous death. He’s terrorizing the world. He’s ruining the economy. He’s basically said, we’re going to get rid of a 6,000-year-old civilization. And then he went to an Ultimate Fighting Championship game to wave at people, right?

Like we can’t pretend that this is okay, that America is the good guy in this situation. It’s no longer even pretending that we represent freedom and justice or democracy in the world when we have this one man with unquestioned, unchecked power, acting however he wants, and then we try and make excuses for it after the fact. It’s too much and we have to stop.

PHILLIP: So, Leigh is not the only person describing Trump’s behavior recently as erratic. And the Times put it all together in a piece that says, Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments revive mental health debate as the former president threatens to wipe out Iran, attacks the pope. Even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he’s grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as lunatic and clearly insane.

And, look, let’s take — let’s pretend that it’s not Trump. If someone that you loved who is in a position of power, like a CEO or something, posted something like that, people would be calling and asking, are you okay?

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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