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CNN Contributor Defends Outburst Against Huckabee Sanders: 'As a Reporter My Job Is to Comfort the Afflicted'

Playboy White House correspondent and CNN contributor Brian Karem defended his Thursday outburst against Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders while on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday.

In that outburst, Karem asked Sanders if she had any empathy for children and accused the Trump administration of throwing them "in cages."

"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," and said "Brian, I know you want to get some more TV time, but that's not what this is about."

"Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter asked Karem if he regretted losing his cool.

"Brian, I have an apology to make," Karem started. "I apologize to every human being who's had to suffer who has less than I do and I did not come to the table sooner. I'm sorry to those people for waiting so long and holding my temper."

"I'm extremely angry with this administration that has lied to me, continues to lie to me," he said.

Karem said he had forgotten that the job of reporters is to "comfort the afflicted."

"I'm sorry as a reporter that for so long I thought the idea was to, I was struggling so hard to do my job I forgot my job is to comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, and ask questions for those who have no voice," he said.

Stelter said he respected what Karem was said he came off as a caricature to people who think journalists are trying to make it all about themselves.

The Playboy reporter said that argument was not legitimate.

"We've been playing by the old rules for so long that we forgot where we are with this administration," he said.