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CNN Panel Gets Heated Over Trump's Treatment of Women

April 27, 2017

A CNN panel got heated on Wednesday night when one of the panelists called President Donald Trump a "sexual predator" and a "disgusting human being."

Host Don Lemon asked Trump supporter and CNN contributor Kayleigh McEnany if first daughter Ivanka Trump was ignoring Trump's past behavior towards women, citing his feud with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"Some say she hurts women by glossing over the issues like the Megyn Kelly issue, like the women who have accused him, like the 'Access Hollywood' tape and things he said about professional women like Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina. Do you think she glosses over those serious words?" Lemon asked.

"We've talked about those issues for the last five months. At a certain point we move forward. President Trump asked for forgiveness those comments in that 'Access Hollywood' tape.' I've given it to him, others should, I think," McEnany said. "'And after five months of talking about this I think she just wants to move on to addressing things like the Syria chemical weapons attack, and I think it's time to move forward."

Panelist Jonathan Tasini, a former Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) surrogate, followed up by calling Trump a sexual predator and a disgusting human being.

"He basically, in my view, committed the crime of sexual assault, if not argued for it when he talked about – I don't want to use the words here," Tasini said. "But Donald Trump is a sexual predator, and he's treated women with disrespect and I don't think whatever Ivanka Trump does, I think it's so built in."

"It's not just about policy, people, women, see Donald Trump as a disgusting human being, that he does not treat women with respect and I think that is baked in," he concluded.

Lemon then turned to Paris Dennard, former director of black outreach for President George W. Bush, and mentioned that a lot of women did vote for Trump.

"A lot of women did vote for him and a lot of women support him and a lot of women who have historically worked for him in the highest offices within the Trump organization when he was a businessman feel something different," Dennard said.

Dennard then went on to challenge fellow panelist Maria Cardona's earlier comment that Ivanka Trump is irrelevant.

"I would also challenge Maria. I do not believe that Ivanka Trump is irrelevant, and I am tired of liberals and I am tired of pundits coming on network television and demeaning the work of these women who happen to be Republican or happen to be working for the Trump administration and calling them irrelevant," Dennard said. "She has a voice. She has a powerful voice and she has an influence and she's relevant and we should celebrate that."

Lemon and Tasini were quick to ask why Dennard never denounced Trump's past comments about women.

"Why weren't you tired of the president demeaning women on television when he was a candidate? I never heard you say that once," Lemon said.

"Never once," Tasini added. "When he talked about sexual assault which is a crime – "

"Let him answer," Lemon interjected.

Dennard said he would have come out against Trump's statements if he was asked, and noted the lack of outrage over Rep. Cedric Richmond's crude comments about Trump Special Adviser Kellyanne Conway.

"If I was asked about some of the things that the candidate Trump said about women, I would have responded in kind," Dennard said. "But to your point, Don, I didn't hear National Organization for Women, I didn't hear a lot of other organizations stand up against Cedric Richmond, who was the head of the CBC when he made that comment about Kellyanne Conway saying she looked very comfortable sitting on the couch in the Oval Office that way."

That is when the panel exploded with one another yelling at each other.

LEMON: A lot of people did come out.

DENNARD: Speaker Pelosi – Speaker –

CONDON: A lot of people came out.

DENNARD: Speaker please –

LEMON: Paris, Paris, that's not true.

DENNARD: Speaker Pelosi did not.

LEMON: A lot of people said that it was wrong.

DENNARD: National Organization of Women.

LEMON: Those people are not running for president. You never answered my question. you never said you were sick and tired of hearing the president demean women.

DENNARD: I didn't hear the president demean women when he was running for president.

CONDON: Oh, my word.

TASINI: Paris, it wasn't just demean. I'm going – when you say, 'I grabbed a woman's pussy' –

DENNARD: That was not said while he was running for president. If you want to go – if you want to go back and litigate what somebody said 20, 30, 15 years ago before they were a candidate for president, that's one thing, but President Trump, candidate Trump did not demean women while he was running for president and if he had I would have come out against.

CONDON: Paris, do you believe that?

TASINI: This is not credible, not credible.

LEMON: Paris does that speak to character?

CONDON: You should not be part of the conversation.

DENNARD: Unfortunately, you don't have the power to have me not be a part of the conversation.

CONDON: Unfortunately, this is why Donald Trump has the dismal numbers that he has, not just with women but with Americans in general.

LEMON: Yup.

DENNARD: That's not true. he has these numbers because the media constantly demeans him.

CONDON: Come on.

DENNARD: If you think his – if you think his poll numbers – this false narrative –

CONDON: You're beating up your own credibility.

DENNARD: You're beating up your own credibility for standing up for women. How about you stand up for conservative women?