CNN anchor Abby Phillip called BS on GOP analyst Scott Jennings over his take on President Donald Trump and UFC fighter Josh Hokit’s attack on former first lady Michelle Obama at the White House Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event.

The biggest fireworks inside the Octagon at Sunday’s UFC fight at the White House didn’t happen during the fights. After the third bout, UFC heavyweight fighter Hokit blurted out a shocking slur during a post-fight interview with Joe Rogan: “Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?”

Trump smiled at the remark, and the White House has yet to comment directly on it — although a senior official praised Hokit on other grounds when asked about it.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip hosted a panel that included Jennings, Charles Blow, Sabrina Singh, Jesse Arm, and Ana Navarro.

When Jennings offered a benign excuse for Trump’s failure to condemn the remark, Phillip pushed back, and agreed that Trump and his team believe their base cherishes these slurs:

PHILLIP: You have someone then say something that’s horrible at the White House, right? About a former first lady. And these people in the White House, Stephen Cheung, the President, nobody has the guts or the decency to say that’s inappropriate. It shouldn’t have been said. It’s wrong. Why?

JENNINGS: Yes. I would do that. I would say we don’t endorse these comments.

PHILLIP: But why won’t they?

JENNINGS: I don’t know. I haven’t really talked to them about it.

PHILLIP: You talked to the President on Sunday.

JENNINGS: My assumption is, yes, Sunday morning. My assumption is that they get asked to condemn things all the time. Everybody, everywhere that says something, they’re constantly being asked to condemn things. And my guess is they just sort of have a policy not to do it.

PHILLIP: Aren’t there some things that they should condemn?

SINGH: This is a pretty easy one. This is the former first lady.

PHILLIP: I don’t get it. The idea that they always have to condemn things is not an excuse for not condemning things that should be condemned.

BLOW: He can’t condemn it because he too has engaged in conspiracy theories against Michelle Obama. In December, he retweeted, reposted a meme about her having snuck into the Oval Office and used Joe Biden’s auto pen to pardon people. He — Donald Trump, reposted that.

In February, he reposted another smear of her that said she was an anti-white racist. And Don Jr., himself, two years ago on Trans Visibility Day, posted this very same meme that this guy expressed the other night, that Michelle Obama was trans, and he did not condemn it then, so he cannot condemn it now. So he is involved in it.

PHILLIP: They believe that this is something that’s near and dear to the hearts of their base, and so they coddle it.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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