Friday night’s CNN Tonight got awkward, leading to calls from host Don Lemon to “cut the mic!” Former Apprentice contestant and Donald Trump supporter Omarosa squared off against Kellyanne Conway, who runs a pro-Cruz Super PAC.
The segment quickly became derailed when Lemon brought up the “over-the-top” Twitter feud between Trump and Cruz regarding Heidi Cruz. An anti-Trump Super PAC, Make America Awesome, released ads for the Utah caucus, targeting Melania Trump. In response, Trump incorrectly attributed the ads to Cruz and went after his wife, Heidi Cruz.
“@Don_Vito_08: “A picture is worth a thousand words” @realDonaldTrump #LyingTed #NeverCruz @MELANIATRUMP pic.twitter.com/5bvVEwMVF8“
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
Omarosa preferred to start off by bringing up Make America Awesome, but was quickly cut off by Lemon, who wanted to discuss Trump’s unflattering tweets regarding Heidi Cruz. With Lemon and Omarosa talking over each other, and with Omarosa saying she would eventually get to his question, Lemon said to cut the mic at just one minute into the segment.
Before cutting to commercial break, Lemon mentioned “we’re not doing that.” He explained “I want everyone on this panel to answer the question directly, then I will let you…” before being cut off by Omarosa, leading to the commercial break.
As the show came back, Lemon repeated his question, “what did you think, what was your opinion, of those photographs that were retweeted by Donald Trump.”
Omarosa changed the subject completely, calling the tweets “insignificant,” since she wished to talk about the Brussels terrorist attacks. To Omarosa’s preference for a discussion on “substantial policy issues,” Lemon reminded her “we wouldn’t be talking about it had the candidate not put it out there.”
In defending his wife, Omarosa compared Trump doing so to defending the nation. She also did not think Trump should apologize for defending his wife.
The conversation finally got to discussing Lemon’s desired topic, with Conway also getting a chance to speak. “Most importantly,” she asked, “if you defend your wife, why do you have to attack someone else’s wife,” which Conway called “the core question here.” Conway also spoke of Trump’s ability to turn his positives into negatives, and a hope that Trump returns to talking about substantial issues.
