CNN contributor and Playboy White House reporter Brian Karem erupted on Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders over President Donald Trump's border policies Thursday, asking if she had any empathy for children and accusing the administration of throwing them "in cages."
The Trump administration has come under fire for separating illegal immigrant children from their parents as part of a "zero tolerance" policy. Sanders took questions about the policy on Thursday, also sparring with CNN's Jim Acosta over it. She called on Democrats to fix "loopholes" in the law to address the problem.
Although he wasn't called on, Karem—whose dramatic outbursts in the briefing room won him a role as a CNN political contributor—interrupted and berated Sanders over the Trump administration's controversial policy.
"You're a parent! Don't you have any empathy? Come on, Sarah, you're a parent!" he said. "Don't you have any empathy for what these people are going through? They have less than you do. Sarah, come on, seriously. Seriously."
Sanders told Karem to "settle down."
"I'm trying to be serious, but I'm not going to have you yell out of turn," she said, trying to call on another reporter.
Karem, with photographers clicking away as he stood at the side of the briefing room, continued on, saying "these people have nothing."
"Brian, I know you want to get some more TV time, but that's not what this is about," Sanders said.
Karem was undeterred, continuing to lace into Sanders while she stood silently at the podium.
"It's not about that ... Answer the question. It's a serious question," Karem said. "These people have nothing. They come to the border with nothing, and you throw children in cages. You're a parent. You're a parent of young children. Don't you have any empathy for what they go through?"
Sanders ignored him and called on the next reporter.
NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff reported from Brownsville, Texas, on the nation's largest detention center for illegal immigrant children and said there were no "cages," although he did liken the situation to a prison.