CNN Brings On Rare Guest

By
Gregory McMullen
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Every so often, CNN lets reality break through its carefully curated echo chamber. Tuesday night was one of those rare moments. Scott Jennings, normally the token conservative expected to politely absorb abuse from the network’s “objective” panelists, suddenly had backup—none other than Ben Shapiro. What followed was a takedown so thorough that Abby Phillip’s panel never recovered.

It was, in short, a master class in exposing the psychosis of the Democratic Party.

The first skirmish came over Social Security and the national debt. Ana Kasparian, forever dialed to eleven, declared she “totally rejects” the idea that entitlements are bankrupting the country. No, she insisted, it’s all about the wars in the Middle East. Trillions wasted, billions to Israel and Ukraine, and voilà—no entitlement problem.


Shapiro’s response was surgical: “The hell they do.” Jennings piled on, pressing Kasparian with a simple mathematical question: does she honestly believe Israel costs more than Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid combined? Instead of answering, Kasparian dodged, ranted, and doubled down on the foreign aid scapegoat. In other words, she rejected not just the argument but arithmetic itself.

Shapiro then had to remind Abby Phillip—CNN’s supposed neutral moderator—that Social Security is not a personal savings account. There is no “lockbox.” There is no piggy bank with your name on it. Today’s workers fund today’s retirees, and the system runs on borrowed money because outflows vastly exceed inflows. It is, as Shapiro correctly noted, the world’s largest Ponzi scheme. Phillip’s insistence that it’s simply “people’s money” was either staggeringly uninformed or willfully dishonest.


The discussion moved to crime, and here again Shapiro nailed the dynamic. He acknowledged the complexities of deploying National Guard troops in cities like Chicago but pointed out the political reality: if Democrats minimize the crime crisis—574 murders in Chicago last year—Trump wins the argument every time. Brandon Johnson and JB Pritzker can spin fairy tales about “manufactured” crime waves, but voters living with gunfire outside their windows know better.

And then there was the tariff debate. Rana Foroohar lauded FDR as a visionary, then slammed Trump’s tariffs as reckless. Shapiro reminded her that FDR implemented some of the steepest tariffs in American history and spent years demonizing “malefactors of great wealth.” In other words, Trump’s economic nationalism is a lighter version of policies Democrats once cheered. Foroohar’s response? A ramble about shipbuilding, as though Trump were personally in charge of America’s dry docks after just eight months in office.


The through-line of the entire hour was clear: Democrats don’t actually disagree with half of what Trump is doing. Their problem isn’t with policy; it’s with the man. If Trump builds, they tear down. If Trump tears down, they demand to build. Hatred is the North Star, and facts are irrelevant.

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