‘Straight-Up Racism!’ CNN Panel Absolutely Explodes in Bitter Brawl Over Laura Loomer-Hasan Piker ‘Double Standard’
A CNN panel went off the rails Monday night as guests clashed over whether Republicans are applying a double standard to MAGA activist and Trump confidante Laura Loomer while demanding Democrats distance themselves from left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.
The fireworks erupted on CNN NewsNight after host Abby Phillip highlighted “racist” comments Loomer made about Florida Democratic state nominee Angie Nixon and other Black female lawmakers, including referring to them as “ghetto black b*tches.”
Phillip contrasted the response with Republican attacks on Democratic candidates who have associated with Piker, asking whether President Donald Trump should disown Loomer.
Former Texas congressional candidate and Democratic activist Isaiah Martin argued that Trump should “absolutely” cut ties with Loomer, citing her relationship with the president and his political operation.
“Republicans spent weeks talking about Hasan Piker while you have a de facto attack dog for the Republican Party, attacking everybody that she can,” Martin said.
Former Trump senior policy strategist May Mailman, however, immediately pressed him on whether Democrats should also distance themselves from Piker.
“I think that Democrats should do that when Donald Trump goes forward and says that he condemns Laura Loomer,” Martin replied.
“So the answer is no,” Mailman shot back, prompting Martin to ask: “Do you condemn Laura Loomer?”
The panel quickly erupted in overlapping argument.
Phillip then turned the focus back to Trump, asking Mailman about Trump and “his open embrace of Laura Loomer,” who, she noted, “is a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.”
Mailman argued that Loomer was “an online personality” rather than someone currently campaigning alongside candidates, unlike Piker, only for Phillip to counter: “Laura Loomer campaigned with Donald Trump.”
The CNN host also cited Loomer’s boasts about helping identify supposedly disloyal administration personnel before playing clips of Trump praising her as a “little nasty” but a “very good patriot” and saying he “listens” to her “recommendations” on personnel and policy.
As soon as the clip ended, Martin challenged Mailman directly.
“So right now, in front of millions of people, will you go and call on the president of the United States of America to condemn Laura Loomer?” he asked.
“Yes. Go condemn Laura Loomer,” Mailman replied, before arguing the controversy was “all a distraction.”
“From you guys’ failed economy. I would agree with you,” Martin sniped.
She then said: “It is manufacturing racism because Florida is about to have a black governor, Byron [Donalds].”
“What the heck does that have to do with anything? What?! Are you serious?” Martin fired back as the panel erupted again.
Progressive pundit Leigh McGowan then jumped in: “That’s racism! That’s straight-up racism! It’s not manufactured racism! It’s so ignorant to say that. Truly it is so ignorant. She called her a ‘ghetto black b*tch.’ That is racist. Do not say it’s manufactured racism. It is heinous to say. And I’m so tired of it.”
McGowan argued conservative provocateurs had long enjoyed relationships with Republican politicians without every GOP candidate being required to answer for them, including shock jock Rush Limbaugh, white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
National Review writer Noah Rothman pushed back, noting Republicans had previously faced questions about Limbaugh and that Trump received “significant backlash” over his 2022 dinner with Fuentes.
But when Phillip asked why Loomer was “still shot-calling in this White House right now,” Rothman responded: “She shouldn’t be.”
“Those are vile comments. A long history of similar vile comments. She deserves to be cast out,” he added, which he said was true for all influencers.
“Your president refuses to condemn [Loomer],” Martin declared, hitting the desk on each beat of the following sentence: “And that is the overarching point is that I do not want to hear a single thing about Hasan Piker until your president goes forward and condemns [her].”
“Literally table-pounding demagoguery,” Rothman jabbed.
The Hill’s White House columnist Niall Stanage then broadened the dispute beyond online personalities, citing controversial remarks by Trump and Republican officeholders: “We keep talking about influencers. The president of the United States described people from Somalia as garbage. Randy Fine, Republican congressman, compared Muslims unfavorably to dogs. The Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia tweeted a video at the time of pro-Palestine protests of a white counter-protester racially abusing a black woman. Those are not influencers. Those are the president of the United States and officeholders in this time.”
He continued, condemning Loomer’s remarks as “flagrantly racist” and warning that a “working class young black woman” with political aspirations will see the MAGA activist’s comments and know that “she’ll have to put up with that kind of crap from a woman who is defended by the president of the United States.”
Mailman then clarified that she was not disputing the nature of Loomer’s remarks.
“When I say that there is a manufactured element, I don’t mean it because of her comments, obviously, which are racist,” she said. “What I mean is by continuing to platform it and to say that this is some sort of endemic part of the Republican Party, I think is wrong.”
That sparked one final confrontation after Martin raised Fine and noted his backing from Trump.
“He was endorsed by the president!” Martin exclaimed, repeating, “He was endorsed by the president!”
Watch above via CNN.
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