CNN’s John Berman Burns MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ With Brutal Trump Meeting Zinger

On Nov 19, 2024

CNN’s John Berman guest-hosted Abby Phillip’s “Newsnight” show on Monday and kicked off by throwing some shade at rival network personalities.

“Good evening. Abby is out, I’m John Berman,” the anchor began.

“You might know me from a cable morning show,” he continued.

Then came the zingers: “Though not the one that might soon have a defense secretary who paid a woman that accused him of sexual assault, nor the one that just sent two anchors to Mar-a-Lago, then talked about it like it was the Yalta summit.”

“No, I cohost the morning show here on CNN that starts in like 10 minutes so let’s get right to what America is talking about,” Berman concluded the intro.

Watch here:

@JohnBerman. You might know me from a cable morning show, though not the one that might soon have a Defense Secretary who paid a woman that accused him of sexual assault, nor the one that just sent 2 anchors to Mar-a-Lago, then talked about it like it was the Yalta summit." pic.twitter.com/39MRbvWEOi

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 19, 2024

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“I’m @JohnBerman. You might know me from a cable morning show, though not the one that might soon have a Defense Secretary who paid a woman that accused him of sexual assault, nor the one that just sent 2 anchors to Mar-a-Lago, then talked about it like it was the Yalta summit.” pic.twitter.com/39MRbvWEOi

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 19, 2024

Berman’s first reference was about Fox News’ Pete Hegseth, who President-elect Donald Trump has controversially tapped to run the Pentagon, and the report Hegseth paid a financial settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017. Hegseth denied wrongdoing and was never charged.

The second was a dig at MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” cohosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who on Monday faced widespread backlash from both sides of the aisle for traveling to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home — following years of criticism of Trump — to “restart communications” with the incoming POTUS after he won the election.

Brzezinski told viewers: “Joe and I went to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally with president-elect Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years.”

“Don’t be mistaken, we’re not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump,” said Scarborough. “We’re here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights that are going to better equip all of us in understanding these deeply unsettling time.”