(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) CNN host Abby Phillip became frustrated Thursday during a debate about Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris, so she hit Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary with a low blow about his citizenship in Canada—a country where Harris lived for five years.
CNN panelists shouted at O’Leary on News Night with Abby Phillip in an exchange about how Harris never won a Democratic primary. The exchange escalated from a discussion about Harris’s coronation as President Joe Biden’s replacement following his July 21 withdraw to a CNN pile-on attacking O’Leary’s U.S. citizenship status.
O’Leary pointed out that Democrats behind-the-scenes—whether under the direction of former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or a yet undisclosed puppetmaster—opted not to conduct a primary election to choose their party’s new 2024 candidate.
“This is the second time the Democratic Party has circumvented democracy and chose—” O’Leary began, alluding to the revelations by Wikileaks that the Democratic National Committee had actively intervented to prevent Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from waging a serious challenge to former first lady Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Several CNN panelists interjected with various utterances of “that’s not true” and “no” before Phillip took the reins.
“Kevin, Hillary Clinton won a primary,” Phillip said after the Shark Tank star compared Harris’s prospective loss to the failed 2016 Democrat presidential nominee.
O’Leary said no one could compete with Clinton, which the CNN host rebutted.
“Do you think that’s really what matters to voters?” CNN economic commentator Catherine Rampell shouted from her seat next to O’Leary.
“I know that you are from Canada,” Phillip said, which elicited a hardy laugh from Rampell.
Phillip and her panelists appeared not to realize that Harris has her own roots in Canada.
Although Harris was born in Oakland, California, she spent the bulk of her teenage years in Montreal, from ages 12 to 17. The Washington Post reported that Harris’s time in Canada, promoted by her scientist mother’s sudden job change, shaped her life.
“The primary process in this country. … It’s not in the Constitution,” Phillips observed. The political parties can choose however they want to choose their political nominee.”
O’Leary repeatedly tried to get a word in before he told CNN panelists he was interested in a strong U.S. president because his children were born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and that all his investments were in the U.S.
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
