The Five Slams Rival Networks for Nunberg Interviews: ‘If You Smelled the Booze’ Why Have Him On?

In response to Sam Nunberg dominating cable news coverage yesterday — with his bizarre comments, requests for legal advice, and possibly drunken segments — hosts of The Five accused their media rivals of exploiting the former Donald Trump campaign aide for ratings.

With Nunberg, who appeared in half-dozen interviews on Monday, appearing flustered, intoxicated, and under a great deal of stress during his TV appearances, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld questioned the ethics of putting the man on television. “If you smelled the booze on his breath, why did you have him on?” Asked Gutfeld — specifically knocking CNN’s Erin Burnett who told Nunberg she could smell “alcohol” while on the air.

Additionally, Gutfeld tried to downplay the newsworthiness of the interviews by referring to Nunberg as a “low-level former Trump aide” and said the following in a spirited anti-media monologue:

“MSNBC called this whole thing historic, but for everyone else it felt kind of odd and sad… It’s obvious here, when it comes to news, we’ve lost perspective — in overdrive to fill the daily recommended allowance of anti-Trumpism. Everything becomes a banner headline, including some poor guy acting manic, either caused by drugs side affects, booze, or Roger Stone — hard to tell the difference at times. One newscaster accused Nunberg of drinking. Well, if you smelled the booze on him, why’d you have him on? Were the optics just too good or did you know he was going to dump all over Trump? The bottom line: We all love a good meltdown, real or contrived.”

Gutfeld went on to accuse the other networks of throwing “all compassion” out “the window” in their past 24 hours of Nunberg-focused coverage.

Co-host Dana Perino made the point that “the news had already been made” when Jake Tapper initially interviewed Nunberg over the phone, and suggested the rest of his TV appearances were simply dragging out his suffering and did not appropriately contribute to the news cycle. This led the less mild-mannered Kimberly Guilfoyle to make the self-described “good point” that CNN drinks on their New Year’s Eve special, so they can’t criticize Nunberg for drinking on-air.

The typically pro-Trump and anti-media Jesse Watters actually said he didn’t “blame CNN or MSNBC,” arguing that the Robert Mueller subpoena made his TV hits newsworthy. He also didn’t blame Nunberg, since “I’d get drunk if I was subpoenaed.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

[images via screengrab]

Follow the author on Twitter (@calebecarma).

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