Latest news with #CNNNewsnight
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CNN Panel Clashes Over Congratulating Trump for Not Attacking the Pope Yet
Conservative radio host Ben Ferguson was slapped down on CNN after suggesting Donald Trump should be praised for his response to the ascension of the first American Pope. Chicago-born Robert Prevost was anointed as the new Pope on Thursday, and immediately turned heads over his prior criticism of the Trump administration's approach to immigration and remarks made by JD Vance. Nevertheless, Trump acknowledged the ascension with a fairly standard response, writing 'Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope,' on Truth Social. 'It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!' But during a panel discussion on Thursday's edition of CNN Newsnight, Ferguson claimed the president deserved 'credit' for obeying the basic rules of diplomacy. 'I think this is exactly why I think there's some people tonight that should give some credit to President Donald Trump for the way he responded, because I think that's probably maybe a little different than what he would have said in 2016,' said Ferguson. 'You look at what he said, saying, this is a great day. He actually took politics out of it as the president of the United States of America, which most people are wanting him to get involved politically.' Ferguson suggested that Donald Trump's approach to diplomacy had matured since his first term in 2016—despite the president earning the ire of Catholics worldwide just last week after posting an AI-generated image of himself as the pope and joking that he would like to be named the next pontiff. Fellow panelist Bakari Sellers, however, refused to praise the president for his boilerplate response, and said Trump does not deserve credit for something he was 'supposed to do' anyway. What followed was a frosty exchange. 'That bar is extremely low,' said Sellers, 'and I think by setting the bar…' 'But can you give a little credit?' interjected Ferguson, to which he was told 'No.' Ferguson added: 'So, in other words, even when Donald Trump does something right on the pope, you're now saying, 'I'm still going to criticize him?'' Sellers said the issue was not one of politics, but one of things like 'love, empathy, and truth.' When Ferguson then asked him why he refuses to show some love to the president when he gets things right on a nonpartisan issue, he responded: 'Because I'm not going to simply give you credit for coming out and doing something that you're supposed to do. One of the most amazing things about this spiritual or religious journey that we're on is, it's not the way we profess it. It's not the way we wear it on our sleeve. It's not whether or not you can quote James or Ecclesiastes. It's not those things. It's how you walk and whether or not people can see God in the way that you walk.' Ferguson interjected again before Sellers could finish his point, and the conversation was eventually derailed by crosstalk before host Abby Phillip moved things along. Vice President JD Vance tweeted 'Congratulations to Leo XIV, the first American Pope, on his election! I'm sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church. May God bless him!' in response to the pope's ascension. He has not yet responded to the pontiff's personal criticisms of his policies.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘MAGA leftist' blames Obama for 2008 bank bailout that was signed by George W. Bush
Self-described 'MAGA leftist' Batya Ungar-Sargon confidently declared on Thursday night that President Barack Obama's 'first act in office' was passing the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that bailed out financial institutions during the height of the 2008 financial crisis. Ungar-Sargon would double down on that claim the following morning, tweeting that 'in 2008, President Obama bailed out Wall Street and screwed over Main Street' while defending Donald Trump's tariffs, insisting that 'in 2024' the current president 'screwed over Wall Street to bail out Main Street.' There is just one small problem with The Free Press columnist's analysis: TARP was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008 — a full month before Obama was elected president and four months before he entered the White House. During an appearance on CNN Newsnight with Abby Philip, Ungar-Sargon — who has been making the media rounds to passionately defend Trump's chaotic tariffs that have sparked a global market meltdown — attempted to contrast the factors that led to the Great Recession to the current economic environment. 'I've been thinking a lot about the 10 million Americans who lost their homes in the 2008 financial crisis, and how President Obama's first act in office was to give $700 billion to the banks that caused it, including $30 billion in bonuses to the crooks who organized it,' she exclaimed. 'And I'm thinking about how those very Americans saw a president pick Wall Street over Main Street,' Ungar-Sargon added. 'And what they saw this whole week was a president willing to go out there and fight for the forgotten men and women of this heartland and take on the entire international global order for them.' A one-time Marxist academic who has since morphed into a Steve Bannon-style MAGA populist-nationalist, Ungar-Sargon has pounded the drum in recent days that Trump is 'waging war' for 'the forgotten people in the heartland of America' with his trade war, going so far as to argue that it could fix the 'crisis in masculinity.' Still, regardless of the merits of her arguments on behalf of Trump's tariffs, one thing is indisputable — TARP was not Obama's 'first act' after he was sworn in as president in 2009. In reality, the massive bailout came about during the fall of 2008 when the global economy was in freefall due to financial institutions and banks — many of which were deemed 'too big to fail' — going bankrupt due to the subprime mortgage crisis. With the housing bubble bursting and defaults skyrocketing, the mortgage-backed securities that lenders and investment firms bought up in high volumes became worthless, resulting in these institutions losing all their money — and customers' deposits. TARP was eventually implemented to buy up these 'toxic' assets and keep the banks afloat amid concerns of a full-blown economic collapse. The bill was initially met with bipartisan resistance and even failed on its initial vote in the House, but Congress eventually passed it after some tweaks, and it was quickly signed into law by Bush. After Obama came into office, other changes were made to the program, including prohibiting firms receiving TARP funds from giving bonuses to their 25 highest-paid employees. The Treasury Department reported in 2023 that the total amount disbursed from TARP was $443.5 billion, with the government collecting $425.5 billion through repayments, sales and dividends. 'After considering the interest expense of $13.1 billion, the net cost of TARP programs was $31.1 billion,' the report stated. Sharing a clip of her CNN comments, Ungar-Sargon reiterated that Obama was responsible for TARP while simultaneously claiming Trump was president last year. 'In 2008, President Obama bailed out Wall Street and screwed over Main Street,' she posted on X (formerly Twitter). 'In 2024, President Trump screwed over Wall Street to bail out Main Street. That's what a lot of Americans are going to remember about last week.' It didn't take long for a number of political commentators and journalists to take Ungar-Sargon to task for her revisionist history. 'Bush was President in 2008. Trump's tariffs are cratering the economy in 2025. I would recommend that @CNN and @abbydphillip stop inviting on pundits who don't seem to have a handle on the most basic facts about politics or economics,' Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor reacted. 'How many mistakes can you make in one tweet?' Charles W. Cooke, a senior writer for the conservative outlet National Review, wondered while Inside Elections deputy editor Jacob Rubashkin was even more succinct with his observation of Ungar-Sargon's remarks. ''Who was president in 2008?' and 'Who was president in 2020?' are two questions you should be required to answer before you opine about politics on TV,' he noted. 'It's one thing to go on TV and claim that Obama was president in 2008. TV is hectic and ppl make mistakes,' The Atlantic's Derek Thompson added. 'But it's another thing to log on in the morning and go: To be clear, Obama, who became POTUS in 2009, hates the common man so much he traveled back thru time to sign TARP.'
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The Independent
11-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
‘MAGA leftist' blames Obama for 2008 bank bailout that was signed by George W. Bush
Self-described 'MAGA leftist' Batya Ungar-Sargon confidently declared on Thursday night that President Barack Obama's 'first act in office' was passing the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that bailed out financial institutions during the height of the 2008 financial crisis. Ungar-Sargon would double down on that claim the following morning, tweeting that 'in 2008, President Obama bailed out Wall Street and screwed over Main Street' while defending Donald Trump's tariffs, insisting that 'in 2024' the current president 'screwed over Wall Street to bail out Main Street.' There is just one small problem with The Free Press columnist's analysis: TARP was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008 — a full month before Obama was elected president and four months before he entered the White House. During an appearance on CNN Newsnight with Abby Philip, Ungar-Sargon — who has been making the media rounds to passionately defend Trump's chaotic tariffs that have sparked a global market meltdown — attempted to contrast the factors that led to the Great Recession to the current economic environment. 'I've been thinking a lot about the 10 million Americans who lost their homes in the 2008 financial crisis, and how President Obama's first act in office was to give $700 billion to the banks that caused it, including $30 billion in bonuses to the crooks who organized it,' she exclaimed. 'And I'm thinking about how those very Americans saw a president pick Wall Street over Main Street,' Ungar-Sargon added. 'And what they saw this whole week was a president willing to go out there and fight for the forgotten men and women of this heartland and take on the entire international global order for them.' A one-time Marxist academic who has since morphed into a Steve Bannon-style MAGA populist-nationalist, Ungar-Sargon has pounded the drum in recent days that Trump is 'waging war' for 'the forgotten people in the heartland of America' with his trade war, going so far as to argue that it could fix the 'crisis in masculinity.' Still, regardless of the merits of her arguments on behalf of Trump's tariffs, one thing is indisputable — TARP was not Obama's 'first act' after he was sworn in as president in 2009. In reality, the massive bailout came about during the fall of 2008 when the global economy was in freefall due to financial institutions and banks — many of which were deemed 'too big to fail' — going bankrupt due to the subprime mortgage crisis. With the housing bubble bursting and defaults skyrocketing, the mortgage-backed securities that lenders and investment firms bought up in high volumes became worthless, resulting in these institutions losing all their money — and customers' deposits. TARP was eventually implemented to buy up these 'toxic' assets and keep the banks afloat amid concerns of a full-blown economic collapse. The bill was initially met with bipartisan resistance and even failed on its initial vote in the House, but Congress eventually passed it after some tweaks, and it was quickly signed into law by Bush. After Obama came into office, other changes were made to the program, including prohibiting firms receiving TARP funds from giving bonuses to their 25 highest-paid employees. The Treasury Department reported in 2023 that the total amount disbursed from TARP was $443.5 billion, with the government collecting $425.5 billion through repayments, sales and dividends. 'After considering the interest expense of $13.1 billion, the net cost of TARP programs was $31.1 billion,' the report stated. Sharing a clip of her CNN comments, Ungar-Sargon reiterated that Obama was responsible for TARP while simultaneously claiming Trump was president last year. 'In 2008, President Obama bailed out Wall Street and screwed over Main Street,' she posted on X (formerly Twitter). 'In 2024, President Trump screwed over Wall Street to bail out Main Street. That's what a lot of Americans are going to remember about last week.' It didn't take long for a number of political commentators and journalists to take Ungar-Sargon to task for her revisionist history. 'Bush was President in 2008. Trump's tariffs are cratering the economy in 2025. I would recommend that @CNN and @abbydphillip stop inviting on pundits who don't seem to have a handle on the most basic facts about politics or economics,' Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor reacted. 'How many mistakes can you make in one tweet?' Charles W. Cooke, a senior writer for the conservative outlet National Review, wondered while Inside Elections deputy editor Jacob Rubashkin was even more succinct with his observation of Ungar-Sargon's remarks. ''Who was president in 2008?' and 'Who was president in 2020?' are two questions you should be required to answer before you opine about politics on TV,' he noted. 'It's one thing to go on TV and claim that Obama was president in 2008. TV is hectic and ppl make mistakes,' The Atlantic's Derek Thompson added. 'But it's another thing to log on in the morning and go: To be clear, Obama, who became POTUS in 2009, hates the common man so much he traveled back thru time to sign TARP.'
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Scott Jennings snaps back at CNN panel, says report shows Trump's actions are 'hardly dictatorial behavior'
Usaid Workers Send Message To Trump On Boxes While Leaving Office For Last Time CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings countered a CNN panel suggesting that President Trump is a "dictator" with a recent report showing that Trump has been more transparent with the press than other modern administrations. During an episode of "CNN Newsnight" on Tuesday, Jennings ripped former DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa and host Abby Phillip for arguing that Trump banning journalists from the White House makes him like a dictator. The conservative responded by citing a post from a former CNN journalist revealing that Trump has answered many more questions than former President Biden so far into his term. "Our old friend — our old friend Chris Cillizza, who calculated that in the first month of the Trump Administration, the president took 1,009 questions. Hardly dictatorial behavior," Jennings said, mentioning the ex-CNN man's recent X post. Jennings felt obliged to roll out the stat after Hinojosa talked about Trump's alleged abuse of the press. During the panel, she said, "When Trump doesn't like a question, he doesn't like a story in The New York Times, he doesn't like anything that someone says about him, he can ban those individuals." "That's something a dictator would do. That is something that is scary frankly," she added. Read On The Fox News App Echoing Hinojosa's thoughts, Phillip read an X post from New York Times reporter Peter Baker, which stated that Trump's handling of the press "reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access." Jennings rejected Hinojosa and Phillip's insinuations. He mentioned how Cillizza's post — which cited a National Journal study on the number of questions Trump has taken one month into his presidency — also pointed out how few Biden took during his first month by comparison. "Same stat for Joe Biden: 141," Jennings said. "And I would remind you all that in 2023, the Biden Administration revoked the hard passes of 442 journalists." Trump Officials List 5 Weekly Accomplishments Ahead Of Musk Midnight Deadline Phillip tried to push back, asking the commentator how many of these 442 journalists were removed from the White House press pool because they weren't attending White House press events enough. Finding that context less relevant than the host, Jennings replied, "I don't know. They lost their access. They lost their access. 442."Original article source: Scott Jennings snaps back at CNN panel, says report shows Trump's actions are 'hardly dictatorial behavior'
Fox News
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Scott Jennings snaps back at CNN panel, says report shows Trump's actions are 'hardly dictatorial behavior'
CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings countered a CNN panel suggesting that President Trump is a "dictator" with a recent report showing that Trump has been more transparent with the press than other modern administrations. During an episode of "CNN Newsnight" on Tuesday, Jennings ripped former DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa and host Abby Phillip for arguing that Trump banning journalists from the White House makes him like a dictator. The conservative responded by citing a post from a former CNN journalist revealing that Trump has answered many more questions than former President Biden so far into his term. "Our old friend — our old friend Chris Cillizza, who calculated that in the first month of the Trump Administration, the president took 1,009 questions. Hardly dictatorial behavior," Jennings said, mentioning the ex-CNN man's recent X post. Jennings felt obliged to roll out the stat after Hinojosa talked about Trump's alleged abuse of the press. During the panel, she said, "When Trump doesn't like a question, he doesn't like a story in The New York Times, he doesn't like anything that someone says about him, he can ban those individuals." "That's something a dictator would do. That is something that is scary frankly," she added. Echoing Hinojosa's thoughts, Phillip read an X post from New York Times reporter Peter Baker, which stated that Trump's handling of the press "reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access." Jennings rejected Hinojosa and Phillip's insinuations. He mentioned how Cillizza's post — which cited a National Journal study on the number of questions Trump has taken one month into his presidency — also pointed out how few Biden took during his first month by comparison. "Same stat for Joe Biden: 141," Jennings said. "And I would remind you all that in 2023, the Biden Administration revoked the hard passes of 442 journalists." Phillip tried to push back, asking the commentator how many of these 442 journalists were removed from the White House press pool because they weren't attending White House press events enough. Finding that context less relevant than the host, Jennings replied, "I don't know. They lost their access. They lost their access. 442."
