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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Trump Fires New Press Secretary After Five Days on Job; Trump Stumps for Georgia Candidate Under Fire for Far-Right Links; Kid Rock Slams El-Sayed's Comments Related to Terrorism; Trump Waives Russia- related Sanctions as U.S.-Ukraine Ties Falter. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired October 16, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Tonight, fired before most learned how to pronounce her name. Is the press secretary's ouster a sign of the chaos to come in Trump's final years?
Plus --
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I actually think Mike Collins is a good- looking man.
PHILLIP: -- Donald Trump stumps in Georgia for a candidate accused of links to white nationalists.
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Mike Collins personally amplified neo-Nazi propaganda online.
PHILLIP: Also, the same man promoting a Christian album said this about a Muslim Senate candidate hours after dining with the president at the White House.
KID ROCK, SINGER AND MUSICIAN: I know he looks assimilated. Guess who else assimilated? The Fort Hood shooter, pilots that flew airplanes into our World Trade Centers.
PHILLIP: And should billionaires pay more? In a big test, California puts the first super wealth tax to a vote.
Live at the table, Joe Borelli, Yemisi Egbewole, Chet Love, Dina Doll, and Paul Mecurio.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.
Tonight, in a new noun in American politics, a Zacharia. Just five days into the job, Donald Trump is firing Katie Zacharia as the press secretary, and replacing the infamous modern record once held by Anthony Scaramucci.
It follows a turbulent week. Questions about her qualifications, rough Fox interviews, a lackluster briefing that we're told embarrassed Trump. Sources say few inside the White House would defend her, and the president told allies that she wasn't ready for primetime. Then came these comments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I said to her, honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider. She has suffered over the last few days.
And I'm not saying, you know, I mean, maybe it's not for her. But I said, you want to be happy in life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Not long after that, she was out of the job.
A reminder, this chaos is 18 days before an election.
Before we open it up to the table here, we invite you at home to join our debate. Go to cnn.com/abby and weigh in there. We'll get to some of your comments as we go throughout the show.
I guess this was predictable in a way. From the time that she appeared last night on Fox, and again this morning, both interviews went really poorly. And then to have the president say that, you know, it was -- the die was cast.
YEMISI EGBEWOLE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF AND ADVISER, BIDEN WHITE HOUSE PRESS OFFICE: Yes. I think the tone from the interviews that she did after her briefing really showed that messaging had gone out, a permission structure was given that Katie could be let go. Look, I have seen the press secretary job very up close. I worked in a press office for a president. It is an incredibly hard job. It is thankless. You, aside from the president and the vice president, are the person that is in people's homes giving the messages to the president, and about the president.
And this is a president who gives his message well. He a- actually doesn't need a press secretary most days. He gives his own briefings, in a sense, every single day. But to pick somebody that really was more style than substance really harmed him in this way.
PAUL MECURIO, HOST, INSIDE OUT WITH PAUL MECURIO: To me, I can't defend her, but this is a press secretary job, and their job is to obfuscate and not give information and be misleading, and she got fired for being misleading.
And it seems kind of ironic to me coming from a president who, according to The Washington Post, in the first term alone, made over 30,000 falsehoods and misleading statements, including 2020 was won in a landslide and was a stolen election, which led to big ramifications January 6th. PHILLIP: I think if it were just that she lied about her resume, I think, you would be -- you know, I don't think it was just that. It was the fact that she went up there and she sounded unrehearsed and unpracticed. And she tried to explain it away when she spoke to Hannity last night which by the way a tough interview for her, which, again, you know, it really shows that Hannity knew what he was doing when he set her up for this.
[22:05:03]
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATIE ZACHARIA, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I was given the offer last Wednesday -- or I got phone call last Wednesday. I flew out to D.C. on Thursday. I had a meeting on Friday, was offered the job, flew home to California on Saturday, flew back to Washington on Sunday, was asked to start on Monday, Sean, which is Columbus Day, and so it's a federal holiday, and have a press briefing at 9:30 in the morning on Tuesday.
So, what I feel is I really stepped up and -- to the plate to do the press conference, Sean.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: It's a lot of explaining. And, by the way, Columbus Day being a federal holiday, not sure what that has to do --
JOE BORELLI, FORMER REPUBLICAN LEADER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: You would think that's a day you could stay home and do some reading of the briefing book. You know, that's -- it's a great day.
Look you know, to stick with the Italian American tradition, Uncle Jr. on The Sopranos said this one time about Anthony Jr., he said, he doesn't have the makings of a varsity athlete. And I think that's kind of what we saw here with Katie Zacharia. This is a question that stumped SAT takers, how many Zacharias are in a Scaramucci? We know it's four-and-a-half. We could joke about it now, it's funny. But, you know, in a sense, it's not funny, it is serious. This is someone who came to the table that clearly wasn't prepared. And she had to know that she was going to be on the world stage. I mean, this is someone who --
DINA DOLL, HOST, MEIDASTOUCH: I mean, he hired her for the job. He didn't do basic vetting. The fact is she got fired because she embarrassed him. He turns to her in front of the press and asks her, what state were you licensed? He had no idea that she was actually licensed because they didn't do a basic vetting of somebody they put into such a top position.
We have seen him hire unqualified people again and again. I mean, just look at Hegseth. But, normally, he's in on it. She embarrassed him, and that's why he allowed Fox to give her those brutal interviews.
As a lawyer from California, the fact that she could do that --
MECURIO: Are you a real lawyer?
(CROSSTALKS)
MECURIO: I need some advice. Can you please give me some advice?
DOLL: I am. I'm a real lawyer. And the criminal code in California actually makes this a misdemeanor to hold yourself out as an attorney for exactly this reason, because here even apparently the president of the United States was calling her an attorney.
This is really serious stuff. I mean, we are used to Trump lying about basically everything, but we do have a professional code. But it's all on him, not her. You can apply for a job, but it's up to your employer to make sure that you are qualified.
MECURIO: She got a call October 7th from the president. When you get a call from the president, you know you got the job. She should've started studying. I have to take issue with the fact that it was just about her incompetence at the podium.
This dishonesty thing, to me, is so ironic and so crazy. This is -- getting thrown out of this job by this guy for this is like getting thrown out of a casino for gambling, like it's insane. If you put Trump on a lie detector, the machine would sputter, would cough, choke, and then file for workers' comp.
So, I feel like what really drove this was her inability to recover from the whole lawyer-attorney, and the difference between the two in an administration that has been lying for six and a half years now.
PHILLIP: Chet?
CHET LOVE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes. Well, look, it, I'm also an attorney, and I'm also barred in California. So, I certainly understand these issues. But look, what she did absolutely is indefensible at the end of the day. But it's understandable about how the president got in this position. This particular individual had a relationship, was in the Trump orbit, was a senior adviser in communications, and also she had worked as a general counsel for Rick Grenell.
Now, I understand the general counsel piece. We can talk about that in a second.
DOLL: It's the most likely part of the criminal case.
LOVE: We can certainly talk about that, but it's understandable why the president would have made this decision.
PHILLIP: Is it understandable?
EGBEWOLE: And so much of the job --
PHILLIP: I think that's fundamentally what we're asking, is like is it actually understandable that the president would offer somebody who has actually no relevant experience to do this? And then on top of that, I mean, the CNN reporting today is that Trump suddenly, recently in the last couple of days apparently, became fixated on filling this role. He was complaining to his advisers that there was nobody out there on T.V. to defend him.
On Wednesday, he arranged a call with Zacharia and the president. She flew out to Washington. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, was not present for that conversation. Trump just offers her the job, and Wiles was informed about it after the fact. So, there was no opportunity to vet. There was no opportunity for anybody with a position of responsibility in the White House to say, hey, like let's really look at this person.
And even -- I mean, there are questions about her time in China. I mean, she worked as, apparently in some kind of legal role in China.
[22:10:00]
Her husband does business there. What are the implications of that for someone who has a job that's very close to national security?
EGBEWOLE: Her husband had also done business with North Korea. To me, it was just too many red flags. And the absence of Susie Wiles, who I view as kind of the mom in the room, the adult in the room, it almost felt like going behind all of the adults' back and just picking your friend because they're really, really nice to you on air.
And she kind of learned a lesson here that doing friendly media, because she does like seven T.V. hits a day, is very different than going to a podium in front of an entire press pool, even if you only answer three questions from friendly media outlets.
MECURIO: But this is his M.O.
PHILLIP: But running, you know, just spin on T.V. frankly is not the same thing as answering substantive questions about your policy, which is what the job actually is.
MECURIO: (INAUDIBLE) your son-in-law on the frontlines to negotiate some of the biggest peace treaties and peace deals. This is his M.O. It's not about the substance of the person. It's about do they have the right look? Are they saying the right thing? Will they defend him to the hilt?
LOVE: Guys, I have to say it's just really being unfair. When you look at -- just look at the history of his appointments. When we look -- again, the idea here is -- as Abby said earlier, the idea is that the president needed someone to be out speaking on these issues as we're in the middle of election, because the president has a lot of great things to talk about, and he needed a champion to go out and do it.
EGBEWOLE: I think the best messenger for the president is actually the president himself.
PHILLIP: So, let me ask you -- BORELLI: Let me piggyback his point real quick. I think last night's interview with Hannity, the fatal flaw she made -- look, anyone in politics, we've all -- most of us worked in politics. When you're a staffer, you kind of have to fall on the sword a little bit. She went out there and blamed her own dishonesty and the process on the team and everyone else. You're supposed to eat that a little bit when you're a press secretary. You're supposed to save the embarrassment of your boss. Instead, you know, instead of going on to, you know, T.V. segments and spewing talking points --
EGBEWOLE: She said he never asked the questions.
BORELLI: She basically said, well, he didn't ask me, you know?
MECURIO: She's learning from the best, right?
BORELLI: Well, the best is Karine Jean-Pierre who went on T.V. every day and lies about Joe Biden. That's a hero.
EGBEWOLE: She did her job as a press secretary.
PHILLIP: Here's a point that Meghan McCain made on X today. She said, one of the biggest problems with this administration right now is every issue facing Americans is serious, and all they do is keep hiring deeply unserious people to represent them. It gives the impression that the administration simply doesn't care what Americans think and that their problems are worthy of hiring capable people with real experience to solve their problems.
Trump's approval ratings have hit the Bush line. They don't have the political capital for this kind of person being anywhere near the briefing room.
What do you make of that?
LOVE: Well, I think the people are going to continue to criticize the president, who want to criticize the president. But as I said before, the president is working to fight for the American people. He's done a fantastic job in terms of executing on the things that he's actually --
DOLL: I don't think he's actually done anything.
PHILLIP: Well, the American people strongly disagree with that. When you've got an approval rating that's in the low 30s and your disapprovals are in the 60s and the 70s on virtually every issue that Americans care about, they don't believe that you're doing the best for them.
And Meghan's point here actually is about the -- is about the professionalism and running the government like it's a real place and not just a place where you just pack it with people who are going to praise you all the time.
BORELLI: The other woman who entered this controversy is Susie Wiles. And by any account, this is a woman who's hyper qualified, hyper motivated and essentially one of the most effective chiefs of staff. She was hired not as the first woman woman chief of staff. She was hired as an operator, and she is.
So, you can't just say that this one hire, and maybe you want to charity pick a few more. The president has picked a lot of good people. And, again, this person's on this story. I'm going to go with Susie Wiles.
DOLL: I mean, the American people realize that he's doing a really poor job, so Susan Wiles clearly isn't reining him in. Whether or not we're talking about starting a new war with Iran or the economy, I mean, he is putting -- this is the one time I agree with Meghan McCain. He is putting unserious people in charge, and we are all feeling the effects of it.
And the fact is it's not really about the fact that he hired an incompetent White House press secretary and didn't vet her at all, but this is somebody who's supposed to be a reflection on him. You would think that he would care about that role.
PHILLIP: And also just let's keep in mind, you can't just say, oh, well, Susie Wiles is serious, so that negates all the other people that Trump has clearly flubbed on. We know that he believes that he's flubbed on them because he's fired a lot of them, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Lori Chavez-DeRemer. There's a long list of people, of women, for whatever reason, women who Trump has fired because of either incompetence or because of scandal.
MECURIO: Rather than having somebody who can manage this messaging, just do a better job at being president. Do a better job that doesn't get you a 30-something percent disapproval rating, right? The problem is --
BORELLI: or have a press secretary who people praise, like Karine Jean-Pierre, people praised her.
[22:15:04]
They fell over themselves praising her, and all she did every day was go out there on the press podium --
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: Actually, I don't think President Biden had the questions printed out for him.
MECURIO: Can we get perspective for a minute? Do you think people at home are going like this, honey, honey, there's a press briefing. Put the kids to bed and make the popcorn. We're going to be fully informed by the president.
BORELLI: Imagine if I got to be treated like Joe Biden on this show and I got Abby's questions that are coming to me, and pre-printed answers for me lined up? Come on.
MECURIO: They don't take these press conferences as seriously as you think they do.
PHILLIP: I mean, look, I think it is beyond belief, Joe, that -- and, look, you can criticize Karine Jean-Pierre however much you want.
BORELLI: Did she lie or did she not lie? That's my question.
PHILLIP: This person took three questions that she could barely get the words out, okay? That is not even in the same ball game as your criticisms, whatever they are, of Karine Jean-Pierre, you don't like her answers.
BORELLI: No, she lied. That's a lie.
PHILLIP: You don't like that she worked for Joe Biden. You don't like that she defended Joe Biden.
BORELLI: They all lie. My criticism is that she lied.
PHILLIP: But she answered questions. She's there on a regular basis answering questions.
BORELLI: She's lovely but she lied many times.
PHILLIP: You may not have liked it, but --
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: And, by the way, Joe --
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: And, by the way, Joe, she was qualified for the job. She actually had the experience for the job.
BORELLI: I didn't say she was unqualified.
(CROSSTALKS)
MECURIO: The problem is that she lied without seniority in the White House. That's the problem. If you have seniority in the White House, you can lie. If you're the president, you can lie. Anybody below you, you're on your own, and he cut you loose.
DOLL: Just President Trump has to know about it.
PHILLIP: All right. Next for us, the president stumps for a candidate with links to white nationalists.
Plus, Kid Rock apparently was invited to the White House last night for a dinner, and hours later he went on a bigoted rant about Abdul El-Sayed, linking him to the 9/11 terrorists.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, the president stumps in Georgia, where a Republican Senate candidate is marred in scandal. Mike Collins is under fire for links to far-right figures with a history of white nationalism and antisemitic posts. His opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, has made that a focal point of his campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSSOFF: I don't like bigotry. I don't like the Klan. I don't like neo- Nazis. I don't like sitting members of Congress who allow neo-Nazi propaganda to be produced from their host, from their house. I don't accept that a sitting member of Congress should appoint people to leadership roles in his political organization who have documented ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
And it's not just the folks around Mike Collins, it's Mike Collins himself. Mike Collins personally amplified neo-Nazi propaganda online. It's disqualifying for a member of Congress and for a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: The number of people close to Collins with controversial pasts is staggering. His former chief of staff was in a group chat with Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer, who are both openly white supremacists and anti-Semites. He tried to use Collins' office to free a Holocaust denier from prison. That staffer told Slate that Collins was unaware and had nothing to do with that effort. Collins' son-in- law has promoted white nationalist ideology and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including claiming that Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and for killing JFK and Charlie Kirk.
Another former staffer has shared images of swastikas and himself in a KKK robe. He says it's A.I. Senator Rand Paul's son also worked for Collins last year and berated a congressman at the -- berated a Congressman at a bar with anti-Semitic insults. He's since said that he is seeking help for his drinking problem.
But despite all of that, President Trump thinks Collins is central casting for the Senate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I call him Pee-Wee Herman, Pee-Wee Herman. Looks like Pee-Wee. His name is Jon Ossoff, highly overrated.
Somebody said, he's a good-looking man. I don't think he's a good- looking man. I actually think Mike Collins is a good-looking man. And he's all man. He's all man. I'm not sure about Ossoff.
If I'm casting a movie for a senator, I like the white hair, I like the big, strong build, big, strong guy. But that's what I want. But he's a respected man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: You know what's confusing about this? This race is actually not very close to the point where Dems are basically pulling out. They don't need to spend money in it anymore. But to send Trump to defend somebody with this kind of history and resume, it seems a perplexing choice.
BORELLI: Maybe this race wasn't close, but if you want to know what race was close and Jon Ossoff didn't do a damn thing about it, it was when Graham Plantter had a Nazi tattoo. And instead of telling a member of his own party to withdraw from the campaign to sit aside, he said nothing until a second and third rape accuser came out, and then a poll came out that said Graham Platner can't win the race. And then finally Jon Ossoff decided, I'm going to take a stand against, you know, neo-Nazis and evil people in my own party.
So, look, I don't know what's going to happen in Georgia. It's an incumbent. Ossoff seems to have some popularity in the state. I don't deny that.
EGBEWOLE: Seems?
BORELLIE: But let's not put this guy on a pedestal as though he's this slayer of anti-Semites.
PHILLIP: You don't have to put him on a pedestal, but, I mean, you're grasping all the way up to --
BORELLI: I'm not grasping. I'm saying a guy --
[22:25:00]
PHILLIP: I'm asking about people who are on Mike Collins' payroll.
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: When it came to his own party, he was a little wimp that -- he was the wimpy man that Trump described because he wouldn't go up to big, bad Graham Platner and say, you have a Nazi tattoo.
PHILLIP: But it's funny, you have a lot of smoke for Jon Ossoff, but I haven't heard you say a single thing about Mike Collins and all the things that I talked about.
BORELLI: Because Mike Collins actually -- I unequivocally denounce every single thing. I fired my chief of staff. I fired the other guy. I yelled at my son-in-law.
PHILLIP: How did these people end up working for him in the first place?
BORELLI: Well, first, if he could pick his own son-in-law, he'd probably win the vote of every dad in Georgia.
MECURIO: He has not, Joe. He has not unequivocally. He has not.
BORELLI: He has said, I unequivocally denounce everything my son-in- law --
MECURIO: (INAUDIBLE) I support Israel. It was a non-sequitur. It was like saying, did you rob a bank, and you say, I like lasagna.
BORELLI: He unequivocally denounced the things his son-in-law posted. I think he used the term vile and anti-Semitic.
MECURIO: Why would you -- if you were running a campaign and you know your son-in-law had these ties, said these things, and did these things, appoint him to run your social media? That's like appointing an arsonist to run your fireworks display.
BORELLI: He is not involved in the campaign.
MECURIO: So, why are you --
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: Again, the Democratic Party should have (INAUDIBLE) Graham Platner, the actual Nazi tattoo guy.
PHILLIP: What about Mike Collins himself? Here's his own history. The A.P., congressman praises heckling of war protesters, including one who made monkey gestures at a black woman. The AJC, Mike Collins draws rebukes after agreeing with an anti-Semitic social media account. New York Magazine, Collins casually endorses throwing migrant from a helicopter. CNN, responding to a video about migrants near the southern border, Collins wrote, this is when you switch from 40 millimeters to the 105-inch.
LOVE: I've been in the Republican Party for a very long time, since I was in college. I was actually enamored when I was in high school. I love Clarence Thomas. And one of the things I think that we have to do as conservatives is to be honest about the fact that we have an addiction to Islamophobia and racism that tends to show up sometimes that undermines our message. Mike Collins could be a great candidate with a strong message, and he could be polling just as strong as Jackson is in the gubernatorial race, but we always trip ourselves up when we get to these issues.
And I think my message to the Republican Party across the board would just be simply if we could defend against Islamophobia and racism as much as we stand against anti-Semitism, we would win every single election from here to kingdom come. Because the reality is we have better policies, we have better issues, and we actually can address the issues for the American people, but we aren't doing that because we get sidetracked with these issues. And so that's what needs to change in this country. Georgia's a great example of that.
EGBEWOLE: And I'm going to talk about my home state for a second, because the reason that Trump is in Dalton, Georgia, Whitfield County, a county that he won 40-plus points, that is MAGA Republicans, which is very different than your traditional Governor Brian Kemp Georgia Republicans, the reason he is there is because it is a rally for himself. Because everybody in Georgia, whether you're Democrat or Republican, knows that Mike Collins is a loser.
And how do we know he's a loser? Because the Republicans that ran against him, Congressman Buddy Carter, said, you have all but lost if you pick him, out of the primary, and Derek Dooley said I don't trust his character and I'm worried about some of the things that he did when it came to taxpayer money. He was the poor choice. Just like Ken Paxton, when you're looking at John Cornyn or Ken Paxton, he was the poor choice. Senate Leadership Fund back in April said, we're going to commit $44 million. They have since pulled out millions. They have left Mike Collins an island unto himself. So, for Donald Trump to go there, to rally for him, when the entire Republican Party has abandoned this man is mind-boggling.
PHILLIP: Well, I mean, Chet's point about the Republican Party not drawing lines on racism and Islamophobia and maybe you can make the same argument about Democrats when it comes to anti-Semitism, we will discuss that later on in the show, but on that point, I mean, that seems like a fair point. Why is it that that's just not a bright line when you're vetting these candidates, hey, this is in their background, he's not a good choice, let's keep him out of it?
BORELLI: Again, I'm not saying Mike Collins is a good choice. I'm not saying I would have voted for him in the primary. I'm not saying he had a chance of winning. I'm saying when it came to this particular incident with his son-in-law, his campaign unequivocally denounced it and said that he had -- they actually said he yelled at his son-in-law or confronted his son-in-law in some way.
That is different from the fact pattern of a person accused of the same thing, a person accused of having a Nazi tattoo. I know I keep going back to it. But Jon Ossoff is the only person who has involvement in both sides. He chose not to get rid of Graham Platner.
DOLL: Chose not to get involved in the race in Maine.
PHILLIP: First of all, I mean, we went through a bunch of different things. It wasn't just the son-in-law. But also just to note, that you bring up Graham Platner, the Democratic Party did not endorse or push Graham Platner, okay?
[22:30:05]
He was not the party's choice.
JOE BORELLI, FORMER REPUBLICAN LEADER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL, AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, CHARTWELL STRATEGY GROUP: You don't remember Chuck Schumer talking about --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Chuck Schumer --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: No, that's actually not what happened, Joe. Let's not misremember what happened.
YEMISI EGBEWOLE, SENIOR FELLOW, THIRD WAY, AND FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF AND ADVISER, BIDEN WHITE HOUSE PRESS OFFICE: There was no Graham Platner support. Please, I'm going to crash out.
PHILLIP: The so-called establishment was against Graham Platner at the beginning and they were against Graham Platner at the end.
(CROSSTALK)
EGBEWOLE: No, they did not. They did not, actually.
PAUL MERCURIO, HOST OF "INSIDE OUT WITH PAUL MERCURIO": You had the President of the United States stumped into a dive with that.
Chet makes a good point. Why even get to this point? Because it's win at all costs, right? You go Mike Collins.
I'm going to point this guy. He's my son-in-law, he's got two million followers. So now the standard is, what does this person stand for?
(CROSSTALK)
MERCURIO: Hang on a second, Joe. No, hang on a second. Joe, hang on a second.
DINA DOLL, MEIDASTOUCH HOST: It's worse than that.
MERCURIO: Let me finish my point, please. Now the standard is not, what does this person stand for? It's -- Can they get me in office? What can I do to get me a win?
PHILLIP: Very quickly, last word.
DOLL: I think it's even worse than that because the Christian white nationalist movement is basically taking over MAGA and the Republican Party. To your point, it's so right, but it's not if it is because that they put Mike Collins out there because these are the beliefs of a lot of people in that party.
PHILLIP: All right, next for us, MAGA star Kid Rock making some derogatory comments about Abdul El-Sayed just hours after the musician was dining at the White House with the President. We'll debate that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, we are learning of an interesting table for four at the White House.
Kid Rock, Bill Maher, and Stephen A. Smith dined with the President last night, and Trump told reporters that the dinner was great and that Maher and Smith actually like him. But this morning, Kid Rock, a Michigan native who is releasing a Christian album this weekend, sparked controversy with these comments about the state's Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KID ROCK, MUSICIAN: The point I would like to make with especially El- Sayed is that we need to be very careful. And even friends like my friend Bill Maher agree with me on this.
With these ideologies that I don't believe are compatible with Western civilization, it appears that El-Sayed is assimilated.
You know what I mean? But I don't see him saying all the time, like this is the greatest country and I love the opportunities it gave me. It's all, this country is racist, and this, that, and the other.
And I would like to make the point that there's been some other people who have assimilated to this country. The Fort Hood shooter.
Those men, those extremists that became pilots and crashed into our World Trade Centers. And this is why I call him a wolves in sheep's clothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: And this is after he has already warned of a holy war coming to the United States.
A couple quick points. I mean, El-Sayed was born in the United States, but also his -- Kid Rock's understanding of the 9/11 terrorists and where they came from is completely wrong. But this is the dominant conversation that's happening on the conservative side about this particular Michigan race versus all the other issues that Americans say they care about.
DOLL: It's incredibly bigoted and it's coming from the top. He keeps saying, these people, and assimilated to your point, he's a citizen. And incredibly pedigreed.
A PhD, a doctor. And if you listen to Abdul on the, whenever he goes to a rally, he actually talks about how much he loves this country. How much he loves Michigan so that actually is a lie.
But it plays into fears and stereotypes and it makes it so only a white person can be a safe person. It also goes into Trump talking about Mike Rogers out of Central Casting.
What's central casting for this Christian white nationalist movement? It is a white Christian man.
And we're hoping that people don't listen to all of Abdul's great plans of how to help people with their grocery prices and with healthcare. Instead, he wants to make people afraid of him.
PHILLIP: Or you could, you know, challenge him on the policy.
DOLL: Exactly.
PHILLIP: It is totally legit to disagree with everything that Abdul El-Sayed wants to do for the country on the substance. But instead, here's President Trump talking about El-Sayed today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm the President of the United States. I can call you whatever the hell I want.
And then today, a guy sends me something.
His name is actually Abdullah something or the other. It's Abdullah bah. Mohammed El-Sayed.
So his middle name is Mohammed so I was right. Almost. By the way, how about that guy? He's a jihadist, he's a radical left person, hates our country.
He's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. How about putting him on the Senate Intelligence Committee?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: I mean, that's just bigoted. It's also a lie, what he's saying.
CHET LOVE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, AND CEO, CORNERSTONE GENERATIVE INTELLIGENCE: And this is a great example of just what I was saying earlier, right?
[22:40:08]
The reality of this situation is that we're talking about this issue of Kid Rock and we're talking about the President and what they're saying, but what we failed to be able to talk about is what Kid Rock said during that interview that we're not talking about is the fact that he talked about President Trump, sat down with Stephen A. Smith, and they talked about DEI.
And they talked about how the President was moved by what Stephen A. Smith actually had to say, and we could be talking about, hey, look what the President of the United States is actually doing about the President.
MERCURIO: They had a big agreement that came out of that was that communism was bad. What's on the agenda next week? Murder is wrong? Can we just be honest about this?
First of all, this whole conversation with Kid Rock is confusing assimilation with loyalty. What does this guy have to do to prove that he's a loyal American?
Born here, Columbia University Medical School, public health official, what does he have to do to prove to the Kid Rocks of the world? What, get arrested for DUI on a pontoon boat in Lake Michigan? Is that what you got to do to prove you're an American?
LOVE: Listen, at the end of the day, it's racist. I've already said it, it's indefensible. MERCURIO: It's that Barack Hussein Obama thing that Trump does.
LOVE: Look, at the end of the day, of course those types of comments are indefensible, but that's why I'm saying we get distracted with that.
PHILLIP: We're distracted because the President had that guy, Kid Rock, at the White House for dinner. Kid Rock has no business talking about any of this stuff, and yet there he is at the White House.
BORELLI: Rockstar says controversial stuff is not exactly a new thing. The person with the associations that deserve questioning is Abdul El- Sayed in this race. We've talked about this a million times with Hassan Piker, but it goes beyond that.
It is things he said. In fact, the state's Democratic Attorney General, his own party, she was one of the people out there who said that his comments remind me that we're comforting terrorists. Something to that effect.
Don't quote me directly, but she said something to the effect that his comments reflect a growing sense of terrorism. And his response to the Temple Israel shooting was that hurt people hurt people. That somehow people are justified in their anger against Israel.
EGBEWOLE: He's talking about a nuanced apology about that.
BORELLI: Those are things that genuinely deserve questions. There's Islamophobia, I don't doubt that. That's wrong.
But there are also real questions about this guy that deserve answering and he should do a better job. Let's talk about the issue.
PHILLIP: The President said he's a jihadist who's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He didn't say, let's talk about what he said about X, Y, and Z. He called him a terrorist. Again, no nuance here, that's the President of the United States.
MERCURIO: In the implication by Kid Rock that because of his religion he's a terrorist. Let me tell you something, I'm a Roman Catholic.
I'm a terrorist because Timothy McVeigh is a Roman Catholic. In fact, if we want to go there, I'm Italian, I'm 100 percent Italian.
I look it, I wear a black suit. Guess what Kid Rock, I'm in the mob. How about that? I have watches in the trunk of my car I can sell you.
(CROSSTALK)
Your world won't blow up if you say this is wrong. As a Republican, (inaudible) guy, if you can't get behind this as being wrong --
BORELLI: You're not a Christian. If a Roman Catholic person said that the Muslim Homosexuality problem was justified, he would denounce it.
PHILLIP: Hold on, Joe. LOVE: Guys, this debate back and forth is proving the problem in this country. We go and we get back and forth. How is this helping the American people?
Like I said, the message that's getting missed here is that the President was actually willing to sit down with Stephen A. and actually have a conversation.
The whole premise of this show -- Wait, you got to listen to what I'm saying.
The whole point of what Kid Rock was actually going out with Stephen A.
Of course they do. Black Americans across this country Stephen A. Smith got the thumbs down award from the NABJ because he was going and trying to have conversations. Hakeem Jeffries got called all kinds of racist stuff by people on the left because he was trying to have a meeting with members of the Trump administration.
I think it's absolutely ludicrous that we continue to have these conversations and get out of hand when we're not focusing on the fact that the President actually wants to listen and work with people but instead Democrats want to demonize.
PHILLIP: We have to go. I would just offer that until the President actually demonstrates that he is actually willing to do something about any of those issues that you talked about, it remains to be seen whether he's actually willing to work with people. He's been President for almost two years now there's been no effort to work across the aisle with Democrats on any issue.
And that's been one of the biggest problems he's faced with voters. We shall see. Maybe Stephen A. will broker some bipartisanship in Washington, I don't know.
[22:45:05]
Breaking news. Moments ago the President has waived some U.S. sanctions targeting Russia as he distances the U.S. even further from Ukraine in the war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:50:00]
PHILLIP: Breaking news. Tonight the President is waiving new sanctions targeting the Russian economy.
Legislation that he literally just signed last month. The executive order comes after his deal with Vladimir Putin for Russian oil, arguing that the move is in the nation's interests. This also gives a lifeline to Putin as the Trump administration moves further and further away from Ukraine.
Dina, this is a Friday night not even 5pm, 9, 10pm move. It's designed to be buried because it literally throws under the bus a major thing that Republicans have been touting. Lindsey Graham's name is on this bill. And now Trump has almost completely waived all those sanctions.
DOLL: Well, he may have tried to hide it but this is not going to stay hidden right before the election. And it's a perfect example of how Trump himself and how he carries out any policy especially foreign policy, is making America less safe and our allies not be able to trust us because here you have a congressional legislation that he signed only to back away from it with no new evidence or reason to back away from it other than he wants Putin to stop helping Iran because he's started another disastrous war. And it's this lack of policy and strategy that's just making all of these --
PHILLIP: This is about justifying his deal on diesel which will do nothing to lower diesel prices but will do a lot to help fill Vladimir Putin's war coffers.
EGBEWOLE: Yes, and changes really the legacy of America. There are good guys and there are bad guys and it is increasingly more concerning that the President is treating the country that got invaded as the problem and the issue. Sanctions are leverage and Putin has done nothing to prove that he will not just benefit economically from this while still continuing and maintaining his war.
MERCURIO: I think he carries favor with Putin to no political deficit for himself. I think he knows that people are so caught up in day-to- day affordability issues right now that people at home aren't really going to care about this. So there's going to be no blowback for him at this point. He's already in the 30s in terms of approval rating and I think he gets something on the back end when he gets done with the presidency.
LOVE: Guys, I think if you look at the data in terms of what rushes out, especially when we talk about the oil issue, they're already selling oil. So when we remove these limitations all it's doing ultimately is making the market more efficient allowing Americans to buy the economy. As an economics major who works in business and understands international energy --
DOLL: Were the republicans wrong to pass it to begin with?
PHILLIP: That is not the case when it comes to Russian diesel. It is not the case that Russian diesel was moving freely through the markets prior to this. Secondly, the President signing this a month ago if he believed a month ago that this didn't make any sense, why would he sign the bill?
And then the third thing is we're talking about the diesel only because the President believes that it's going to move diesel prices. Russia is not the reason diesel is at $7 a gallon. It is the Iran war.
So it's not really going to have an effect on the global diesel market. The only effect that it has is that it frees up cash for Putin. That is what it does.
LOVE: Again, I would disagree with the characterization I think when you look at the markets they have been selling diesel and what we're seeing in terms of what President Trump's trying to do is to lower energy prices. Yes, the Iran war certainly had an impact on that, but what he's focusing on is --
PHILLIP: It is not -- I'm telling you. There's data on this.
You can look at all the price spikes for diesel. They are not correlated with strikes on Russian energy, they are not related to Russian energy output, they are related to the Iran war.
LOVE: Ukraine has been attacking,
PHILLIP: I know that Ukraine has been attacking -- you can go look it up after the show. They are not --
It's not correlated with Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil. The biggest driver, the dominant driver of diesel prices going up is the Iran war. When Trump entered into the war, diesel prices spiked, when they went into a ceasefire, they went back down, when the war started again, they went up again.
You don't need to be an economics major to look at a chart and read it. That's what it says.
The amount of diesel coming out of Russia in this deal is about 2 percent of our use. It's insignificant, but there's a significant amount of money in Putin's pocket.
BORELLI: Which country in the Gulf defies more diesel than Russia?
PHILLIP: It's a major transit hub for diesel. We've got to go, but Joe, it's not smart to argue that it doesn't matter what happens in the Middle East.
It's not a smart point. We'll be back in just a moment.
BORELLI: The primary reason was --
[22:55:10]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: The "Have I Got News For You" crew is back with another new show tomorrow. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROY WOOD JR., COMEDIAN AND HOST OF "HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU": Which Republican posted some A.I. slop this week?
AMBER RUFFIN, COMEDIAN AND TEAM CAPTAIN, "HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU": Every last one of them.
ADAM MOCKLER, HOST OF "THE ADAM MOCKLER SHOW" ON YOUTUBE: Yes, which didn't?
[23:00:05]
WOOD JR.: Answer, it was Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn. Marsha Blackburn put out a little bit of A.I. slop to get people hyped for the start of early voting. She posted this.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
(LAUGHING)
Say what you want, but that Turning Point USA halftime show was lit.
(LAUGHING)
That was a good halftime show. I hate I missed it. Also, I'm pretty sure there was no mustard on that beat.
(LAUGHING)
JOSH GONDELMAN, COMEDIAN: Mayo on the beat.
(LAUGHING)
RUFFIN: So white people just do not know what that song's about. It is don't.
GONDELMAN: Republicans certainly don't know that that's a song about being against pedophiles.
(LAUGHING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: You can catch the all-new episode Saturday at 9 p.m. on CNN and streaming the next day with an all-access subscription.
Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight." Tomorrow morning, be sure to catch "Table for Five" at 10 A.M. Eastern right here on CNN. In the meantime, "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
