A TRIBUTE: Remembering Ed Martin’s Best Moments on CNN

Aidan McLaughlinJan 19th, 2018, 12:28 pm

Like a shooting star, Ed Martin soared into our lives — lighting up television screens tuned to CNN everywhere. And then, just as quickly and intensely as he burst onto insufferable cable news panels, he burned out.

That’s right, Ed Martin has gotten the boot from CNN. The network confirmed to Mediaite on Wednesday that Martin is no longer a contributor, no longer the jester in Jeff Zucker’s drama.

Brought on in August to fill CNN’s dimwitted-Trump-surrogate quota after Jeffrey Lord was unceremoniously thrown off the top of 10 Columbus Circle to his cable news demise, Martin sure delivered.

He was a reliably messy sparring partner with his foes on the Never Trump side of the aisle, rarely failing to incite a meltdown from Ana Navarro or Bill Kristol with a garbled defense of the president that made absolutely no sense.

As an in memoriam of sorts — before Martin joins predecessor Lord in the annals of scorned-pundit history — we decided to put together an appropriately brief list of the best moments from his Scaramucci-short tenure at CNN. Enjoy.

Ed Martin’s first night on CNN

Martin’s introduction to the CNN set was a rocky one. Scratch that, it was a bloodbath. If you thought his aw-shucks St. Louis delivery would rescue Martin from brutal put-downs at the hands of fellow CNN guests, you might be as naïve as the man himself. The pro-Trump surrogate got on Navarro’s bad side first (not a wise idea), and received this vicious scolding from the contributor: “Try to control yourself from interrupting me, because you’re getting a little too close and you’re in my danger zone.”

After that mauling, a battered Martin took a further beating from April Ryan and Paul Begala over Trump’s defense of white supremacists at Charlottesville. To wrap things up nicely, Navarro commanded: “Back off you creep.”

Watch a montage of the train-wreck above.

Ed Martin says Trump isn’t racist because he kisses black babies

Not much to add here. Ed Martin defended the president against accusations of racism by pointing out that he has kissed African-American babies. This went down way back when Trump was feuding with Jemele Hill, the ESPN host who called the president a white supremacist after his comments about Charlottesville.

Martin’s novel defense of the president prompted this stellar question from a stunned Marc Lamont Hill: “Is it possible to kiss a black baby and still be racist?”

Ed Martin defends Roy Moore to the bitter end

Ed Martin went all in on his defense of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was President Donald Trump’s candidate of choice — despite being accused by a number of women of preying on them when they were in their teens.

But Martin is a blindly loyal apostle, and worked his ass off to defend the Republican candidate’s honor while poking holes in the stories of his accusers. That made for fiery and combative CNN segments — and wonderful television, if you could bear to watch. Martin incited fury when he said that calling Moore a child molester was “despicable”; He called into question the accusers, once prompting Don Lemon to calmly explain to him that he was a victim of child abuse; And even after Moore lost, Martin remained steadfast.

Watch Martin’s last defense of Moore above.

Ed Martin gets thrown into a trash compactor by Ana Navarro

This is another Roy Moore segment special — one that probably deserves its own mention. During a discussion of Moore’s comments that homosexuality should be illegal, Martin’s defense was: it’s not like the Senate is ever going to hold a vote to outlaw homosexuality, so who cares.

After accusing Navarro of “name-calling,” Martin was buried under a torrent of abuse. The best line from Navarro? “Really, I barely know your name, I have no idea who you are.”

Ed Martin sparks on-set riot after claiming that “when the Jews were in bondage for years, they still loved each other”