‘I can’t believe you just said that’: CNN host clashes with conservative podcaster on air

CNN anchor Abby Phillip repeatedly sparred Friday night with a conservative podcast host during a tense debate over presidential tariff powers following the White House’s devastating Supreme Court loss.

The argument ignited when Anthony Esposito, who co-hosts the “Policy & Profits” podcast, dismissed the court’s conclusion that tariffs function as taxes.

“The president has the constitutional right to tariff, not to tax,” Esposito said. “A tax and a tariff – that’s semantics.”

That’s when Phillip immediately pushed back.

“The court settled that issue today,” she said. “They made it very clear that in this case, a tariff is a tax. And both are in the hands of Congress.”

But when Esposito, chief executive officer at AscalonVI Capital, insisted that what Phillip said was “not true,” and that tariffs are “a fee charged to another country,” Phillip chuckled – then wasted no time stopping him.

“A tariff is a what?” she asked, appearing stunned. A tariff is a fee charged to who?”

“I can’t believe you just said that,” the CNN host of “NewsNight” said. “Is there any evidence that a foreign government has paid Donald Trump’s tariffs?”

About ten minutes later, Phillip returned to the issue as the two continued to talk past each other.

“The only point that I’m making,” Phillip argued, “is that Congress determines what powers he has.”