Trump staffer shut down in extremely awkward CNN interview

2025-04-28 07:19:45admin

It has not been a good few weeks for the Trump campaign.

News broke that the campaign was undergoing a large restructuring on Wednesday, in which Trump added Stephen Bannon from Breitbart as the chief executive and Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager in place of Paul Manafort. The campaign then went into damage control, reassuring the media that everything was totally fine and this sort of action was completely normal.

Executive vice president of the Trump organization and special council to Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, appeared on CNN on Wednesday afternoon and attempted to defend the campaign when the subject of its slipping poll numbers came up.

The following moment may be one of the most awkward TV moments in Trump's entire campaign.

SEE ALSO: Trump’s cozy relationship with Breitbart gets even cozier with big hire

Tweet may have been deleted

"Let me ask you about this, you say it is not a shake-up but you're down," CNN's Brianna Keilar tells Cohen.

"Says who?" a perplexed Cohen responds.

Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

"The polls, most of them, all of them?" Keilar hits back. "Says who?" says Cohen, unable to think of a more appropriate response. "Polls. I just told you, I answered your question," says Keilar, who can't believe she has to explain this.

"Okay, which polls?" Cohen asks.

"All of them," Keilar says, breaking the news to Cohen.

Cohen then accepts defeat and lets Keilar continue her questioning. Maybe this was the moment he finally realized the Trump campaign has hit a rough patch.

Earlier in the day, during an interview with Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart staffer who left following the controversy over the alleged physical confrontation between reporter Michelle Fields and former Trump staffer Corey Lewandowski, Keilar was also introduced to the phrase, "turd tornado."