‘Oh My God!’ CNN Crew Pounces on Pro-Trump Host Who Says ‘I Don’t Think Trump Lied’ About Jesus Pic

CNN’s Newsnight table pounced on pro-Trump podcast host Emily Austin when she said she didn’t think President Donald Trump “lied” about a post depicting him as Jesus. Christ, that is.

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.

“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor — and, had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support,” Trump said when confronted over the post.

The post came not long after a since-deleted White House event at which attendees compared Trump to Jesus.

On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip convened a panel consisting of Austin, Bakari Sellers, Peter Meijer, Sarah Matthews, and Ana Navarro.

The table erupted with incredulity when Austin declared, “I don’t think Trump lied about the post, and I’m not here to defend every action that he makes”:

NAVARRO: Well, look I’m seeing it in my own circles in Miami. Remember, I live in a community that overwhelmingly supported Trump, and I am seeing some of the cracks in the dam. And I think part of the reason that he’s picked this fight with the pope, other than the fact that the pope gets under his skin and he’s depicting himself as Jesus Christ and then lying about it, so that’s like two or three commandments that he violated in one fell swoop, is because he’s having such a bad time right now, right?

His wife is out there giving some random press conference at Epstein, the subject he wants to forget. The approval numbers are down, down, down in the basement. His Iran talks have fallen apart all while he’s in Miami watching a UFC fight. Gas prices are through the roof and his best friend in Hungary just lost overwhelmingly after 16 years in power, despite J.D. Vance having been there just a few days ago helping him campaign.

And instead of us talking about Viktor Orban and the bells that should be ringing for Republicans, the wakeup alarms that should be ringing for Republicans, we’re talking about Trump’s insanity and stupidity and blasphemy and lack of respect.

So, is there a point, is there logic to his method and his madness? Yes, but but people are less and less tolerant of it. It’s one after the other after the other after the other.

AUSTIN: I want to interject on Ana’s point. I don’t think Trump lied about the post and I’m not here to defend every action that he makes.

NAVARRO: You think he thought he was being a doctor?

AUSTIN: I want to tell you that Trump didn’t A.I. that photo. The original post, was it Nick Adams who posted it originally? So, he posted that many, many months ago, calling Trump the healer of the nation.

Now, I’m not crazy. I have eyes. I could see how people are like, oh, Trump is portraying himself as Jesus Christ. But, A, he took it down. B, this isn’t really that surprising to anyone. And, C, that’s not — if the person who created the photo is denying that —

MATTHEWS: Do you find it blasphemous?

AUSTIN: Blasphemous?

MATTHEWS: Yes?

AUSTIN: If he was intentionally portraying himself as Jesus Christ —

NAVARRO: He was. But he was.

MATTHEWS: Do you think he was portraying himself as a doctor?

NAVARRO: I don’t think so.

AUSTIN: Oh, as a healer of the nation? That’s what the guy who had created it.

(CROSSTALKS)

MATTHEWS: If he can’t identify that that looks like Jesus Christ —

AUSTIN: Well, I think he did, and that’s why he deleted it.

PHILLIP: Even the healer of the nation thing, I’m not — that doesn’t absolve him of anything.

AUSTIN: But I feel like he —

PHILLIP: You know, Jesus — the whole thing that the picture depicts is Jesus healing, okay? That’s what the picture is supposed to show. In the Bible, Jesus heals several people. And so the idea that Trump thought of himself as a healer but sees himself depicted as somebody dressed like Jesus with an aura around his hands and his head, it is — that does not absolve him at all.

MATTHEWS: Well, did he delete it?

AUSTIN: We have bigger things in the world to talk about?

MATTHEWS: Sure. He deleted the image, and I applaud him for that.

SELLERS: I mean, I think (INAUDIBLE) that line is like. What if — like what if Barack Obama did it, right? Like I would be —

AUSTIN: I honestly —

SELLERS: I think it’s not an honestly thing. It’s I know how you would react. But the fact is that, and I think that this is not a — this is not a Donald Trump problem. This is more of a like, my good friends on the panel problem because we know who Donald Trump is. And the problem is that his supporters cannot sit on TV or wherever it is and simply say, look, that’s blasphemous.

AUSTIN: But they did. So many of them did.

SELLERS: No, but, I mean, like it’s sacrilegious. You are absolving him of the issue that I find to be very blasphemous, that I find to be very sacrilegious, that 90 percent of America finds him to be very sacrilegious on.

This is Mr. 2 Corinthians. This is not somebody who actually has a full grasp of theology, a full grasp of scripture, but yet, and still this is a party of faith.

AUSTIN: But, Bakari, don’t get me wrong, I would not have been like, hey, this is a phenomenal idea.

SELLERS: No, I’m not saying that.

AUSTIN: That’s not what I’m saying.

SELLERS: That’s not what I’m asking. That’s not my charge to you at all, and the audacity of me to have a charge to you on national TV. My charge to you, however, is to simply be able to say on camera, Donald Trump was wrong.

AUSTIN: Oh, I’ve said it plenty of times.

SELLERS: No.

AUSTIN: I don’t have a problem saying that.

SELELRS: No, on this. No, on this particular issue, Donald Trump was wrong. He should not have done it. It’s not about him taking it down. Be able to have the audacity and courage to call him out and say it was wrong.

AUSTIN: Okay. Let me say this. It wasn’t smart to post.

SELLERS: Oh my God!

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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