CNN’s John Berman Pushes About Trump’s Dinner With White Supremacist During DeSantis Face-to-Face

CNN anchor John Berman pressed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hard over ex-President Donald Trump’s dinner with White supremacist Nick Fuentes during a rare appearance on the network by the candidate.

DeSantis generally sticks to more right-leaning outlets, but has appeared on MSNBC and, now, CNN this week to discuss the situation in Israel following the coordinated terrorist assault on Israel Saturday morning that has thrown the region into war.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, Berman followed up several exchanges on that issue with a dogged interrogation about Trump’s infamous dinner with Fuentes pegged to a bizarre conspiracy theory advanced by the erstwhile Mar-a-Lago guest:

JOHN BERMAN: Peculiar statement from American White supremacist Nick Fuentes over the weekend, who said that “Israel’s intelligence failure,” he called it, is, quote, “a little suspicious in light of how the Likud, Likud government will benefit politically from this crisis, both domestically and internationally.”

What do you say to a statement like that?

RON DESANTIS: That is totally outrageous. You know, this garbage out there, you hear things. People are saying that the babies really somehow weren’t killed, that this is all just manufactured. I understand there’s conspiracy theories that can go on, but but we’ve got to put that garbage aside and we’ve got to stand with Israel. And yes, we have to condemn the anti-Semitism that has motivated these attacks and that has motivated attacks around the world.

JOHN BERMAN: Let me just ask you then, on Nick Fuentes for a second. He ate at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump in 2022. He’s also said, among other things, “I love Hitler,” a guy like that who spreads conspiracy theories like the one you were just talking about. How do you feel about Republicans associating with him?

RON DESANTIS: Well, I reject all conspiracy theories of that nature. I think that we just have so much garbage in our society right now. I mean, it broke my heart to see those, those demonstrators. It breaks my heart to see college students–

JOHN BERMAN: Should Republicans be eating with Nick Fuentes?

RON DESANTIS: –putting out praise of Hamas, all across the board. I mean, I think we just have to we just have to stand up together and and do what’s right. And so, yeah, look, I’m proud of what we’ve done in Florida. You know, we’ve signed major legislation to combat anti-Semitism. We’ve provided security assistance for our Jewish Day schools, and we’ve beefed up Holocaust education because it’s important that we never forget. So we’ve led by example here with our kids. And I think that’s part of the reason why we have such a strong community here.

JOHN BERMAN: All right. You didn’t answer my question on Nick Fuentes. Or you go, I’ll I’ll move on. If you’re not going to give a direct answer, you gonna give a direct answer to that?

RON DESANTIS: Honestly, we’re kind of garbled about Mar-a-Lago. I mean, someone was saying something bad. Obviously, my record speaks for itself.

JOHN BERMAN: I just want to know if.

RON DESANTIS: You just.

JOHN BERMAN: I just want to know if Republicans should be eating with Nick Fuentes.

RON DESANTIS: I would not do that.

Watch above via CNN News Central.