‘Everyone Stop Talking’: Abby Phillip Reaches Wits’ End With Shouty Panelists

It has been about 14 months since CNN NewsNight changed its format from a standard host-centric news program with political shakers and movers to a roundtable of five guests and a host.

Or in the case of Abby Phillip, an occasional babysitter just trying to get everyone to calm down. And Friday was just such an occasion.

The hour was rife with crosstalk, shouting, shrieking, and an accusation by one guest that another guest lives “at the top of bullshit mountain.”

The charge was made by podcaster Pete Dominick, who repeatedly clashed with conservative radio host Ben Ferguson. At one point, Ferguson tried to claim that President Donald Trump had not been friends with deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“That’s a lie!” Dominick protested, prompting crosstalk.

In another heated exchange, Ferguson mixed it up with former FBI agent Asha Rangappa over the credibility of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. This involved yet more yelling.

But it was during a segment about the FBI raid on John Bolton’s home when the show reached a cacophonous crescendo. Hours earlier, agents executed a search warrant at the Maryland home of Bolton, who served as Trump’s National Security Advisor and has since become one of his biggest critics from the right.

Critics of Trump have said the raid appears to be politically motivated. Defenders of the raid have pointed to the prosecutions of Trump – including the 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago – even though Bolton had nothing to do with those.

Here is the exchange, which also involved GOP strategist Kristin Davison, that prompted Phillip to command her panel to zip it:

FERGUSON: Again, let’s just calm down and let this system work.

[CROSSTALK]

RANGAPPA: But I’m glad that you’re acknowledging that–

FERGUSON: I’m just saying it’s pretty rich from John Bolton tonight.

RANGAPPA: I’m glad that you’re acknowledging that the search of Mar-a-Lago would’ve been similarly–

[CROSSTALK]

PHILLIP: Go ahead, Kristin.

DAVISON: No, I think, look, we don’t know what the motivation was. We don’t know what’s gonna come out of this. Like we said, let the process play through. We do have examples of political retribution. We do. In the Obama administration and the Biden administration, the 40-plus organizations that the IRS apologized to–

DOMINICK: Nonsense.

FERGUSON: Not nonsense. That’s a fact.

DAVISON: They targeted Linchpins for Liberty, NorCal Tea Party. They searched organizations for “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” and penalized them.

FERGUSON: Facts.

DAVISON: We don’t know what this one is yet.

DOMINICK: That also is–

DAVISON: We have, though, that political retaliation.

[CROSSTALK]

FERGUSON: Hey, hey!

DOMINICK: Everything you just said was made up!

DAVISON: No!

[CROSSTALK]

RANGAPPA: There’s a big differnce between the Obama administration–

DOMINICK: They’re not criminals?

RANGAPPA: There has been a norm of independence between the Justice Department and the White House. And they’ve cleared–

FERGUSON: President didn’t know about it today.

RANGAPPA: And it’s clear that that norm is no longer there.

FERGUSON: That’s not true! Give me evidence to prove that. Hold on. Give me evidence to prove that!

[SHOUTY CROSSTALK]

RANGAPPA: No they don’t!

PHILLIP: Everyone, everyone just stop talking for just a moment.

The host then cut to a clip of an interview with Vice President JD Vance.

Watch above via CNN.