A CNN panel descended into utter chaos on Saturday morning after one of the guests began shouting so loudly across the table that the person next to him had to cover her ears.
Things began to unravel after Table for Five host Sara Sidner broached the subject of Secretary for Homeland Security Kristi Noem posing for a photo op earlier this week in front of a row of caged inmates at a prison in El Salvador.
Pro-Trump New York Attorney Arthur Aidala quickly swung in to defend the Trump administration’s PR spin on its nationwide deportation drive: “Look how tattooed those guys are! They look like scary guys!” she said.
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Each of the panelists and the host then erupted with no one being able to get a word in edgewise.
After a brief pause, Aidala said he thought “the people who voted for President Trump, in Middle America,” would look at the men featured in the photo with Noem “as a threat.”
“These are not people I would want to see when I come out of a Broadway show, or when I come out of church,” he went on.
Interrupted by music journalist and TV personality Touré, Aidala began to shout again, screaming, “Young man, did you represent someone from the Crips gang this week? Because I did! Don’t tell me about gangs and tattoos and gang signs, it’s the world I live in!”
It was at that point that network commentator S.E. Cupp covered her ears and shrank down behind the table. She later raised her phone to her ear and joked, “Mom, can you pick me up?” as the attorney continued to bellow beside her.
The on-air spat only subsided after host Sidner slapped her palm on the table, shouting back out at the panel, “Order in the court!” and reminded them that “talking over each other doesn’t work, no-one can hear what you’re saying!”
