This CNN Anchor Perfectly Shut Down a Republican Senate Candidate Who Kept Interrupting Her
“Manterrupting” is real—and it’s backed up by numbers and by situations that we see play out in meetings, in social situations, and on TV with what sometimes seems like daily frequency. In just three minutes, one 2014 study found, men will interrupt a woman about twice. But if we were to go back and look at that data, there’s a high possibility a recent CNN interview would have skewed that number wayyyy to one side: a Republican Senate candidate from Virginia repeatedly interrupted anchor Kate Bolduan during an interview, talking over her multiple times. But a la Rep. Maxine Waters’ fierce and instantly iconic behavior in a similar situation (“Reclaiming my time!”), Bolduan held her ground by reminded him that he was on her show—and not the other way around.
Bolduan, host of CNN’s At This Hour, had Stewart on her August 17 show to discuss last weekend’s white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. What began as Stewart defending Trump’s unhinged press conference statements turned into an even more cringeworthy two-minute exchange.
The conversation turned ugly when Stewart accused Bolduan of exploiting the tragic death of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed last Saturday morning during a domestic terrorism attack in Charlottesville.
Bolduan asked Stewart about why Republicans haven’t publicly condemned the alt-left: “Is it possible that it’s because someone died who was counter-protesting?”
“You’re trying to use this poor women’s death to say that Confederate monuments should be taken down,” Stewart replied. “That’s exactly what you’re trying to say, Kate.”
“I’m sorry, is that what I said at all?” Bolduan, who’s been a CNN journalist for over a decade, asked the GOP candidate. “In no way am I conflating the two.”
He interrupted her repeatedly, and after Bolduan attempted to explain herself over Stewart multiple times, she finally put the politician in his place.
“I am the anchor of the show,” she said. “I am asking the questions. Stop talking, stop talking. You’re the guest on my show. I would like to continue the conversation with you—respectfully.”
Her firm shutdown got Stewart to stop talking, and Bolduan was finally able to clarify that there is “a time and a place to have a debate and a conversation about the appropriate place for Confederate statues.”
Watch her full takedown here:
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