CNN hit back at a conservative guest Wednesday as it met his accusations that left-wing rhetoric was sparking violent incidents with a brutal supercut of President Donald Trump's most incendiary attacks.
During a heated debate on CNN NewsNight, guest Ben Ferguson specifically referenced the assassination of Charlie Kirk and attacks on ICE facilities. Ferguson criticized Democratic leaders like Gavin Newsom for describing ICE agents as "authoritarian" and potentially inciting further violence.
But host Abby Phillip challenged Ferguson's stance by playing multiple video clips of President Donald Trump using similarly inflammatory language.
"She's a Marxist, she's a fascist," Trump was heard saying in one of the clips, targeting his opponent in last year's election, Kamala Harris. Phillip pressed Ferguson on the inconsistency, asking, "Are you so committed to this idea that we should just ban certain words from the lexicon? 'Authoritarian,' 'fascist,' 'Nazi,' 'communist' — should we just ban them because they're all leading to violence, or is it just that it's not OK when your political opponents use them?"
Ferguson maintained his position, arguing that Newsom's rhetoric about ICE agents directly correlates with violence. "It was eight hours earlier! Eight hours," he emphasized, suggesting a causal relationship between Newsom's comments and subsequent attacks.
Phillip concluded by challenging Ferguson to apply his standard consistently: "To a degree, I take your point about demonization... but I'm asking you about your insistence that certain words that are being used by your political opponents should be off limits."
