A CNN panel repeatedly erupted into shouting Monday night during a heated discussion over former Donald Trump's remark earlier in the day that the U.S. has "a lot of bad genes in our country right now."
The discussion happened on CNN's "NewsNight" with host Abby Phillip.
After former Republican strategist Scott Jennings, who served as special assistant to President George W. Bush, said it's "perfectly fine to acknowledge" that some people are "genetically predisposed to violence," and that today, there's a concerted effort to make it seem like Trump is disparaging immigrants with his remarks.
"All he is commenting on is the violent murderers who are in the country. It's simply not true what is being said about him today," said Jennings.
The quote in question saw Trump say in an interview with a conservative commentator: "How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers."
"Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they're now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now."
Academic Michael Eric Dyson pushed back on Jennings' characterization and noted Trump is actively calling attention to immigrants over white people. Dyson called the former president a "white supremacist," prompting a scoff from Jennings.
"He's generating nativist language to appeal to the genetic basis of behavior. That is a classic definition of what we mean by white supremacy," said Dyson.
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Madison Gesiotto, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, defended Trump and said she too disagreed with the panel's characterization.
The conversation devolved when she asked rabbi Jay Michaelson if he was fine with having 13,000 murderers in the country due to crime rates being lower for immigrants than people born in the U.S.
"That's not how it works," he shot back, as the panel began shouting.
Phillip hit back at Gesiotto and called the figure "wildly misleading," noting the number encompasses many decades.
"The fact is they're here," insisted Gesiotto. "And if they've been here for decades that's even worse Abby.
Panelists then repeatedly interrupted each other over the next minute as Michaelson said he didn't want to "scapegoat immigrants" as criminals and Gesiotto insisted that the data proves "a lot of rapists and murderers have gotten here."
"At a lower rate than natural born citizens," Michaelson insists.
"So you're ok if it's a lower rate? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! We don't want rapists and murderers here," Gesiotto shot back.
Before the segment could end, Phillips tried to fact-check Gesiotto's claim that convicted and deported immigrants are "still roaming the country."
"That is not true," said Phillip. As she tried to explain, Gesiotto continued talking over her, before being joined by Dyson.
"Michael, hang on one second," said Phillip, unsuccessfully.
"This is classic white supremacy," he said. "And your justification of it is an extension of that."
Later in the segment, Jennings sparred with Michaelson after Michaelson tried to call out Trump for repeating falsehoods about letting in "violent people."
"We are!" Jennings said forcefully. "We're letting in everybody!"
Michaelson repeated again that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than people born in the United States.
"That's the reality," he said.
"You could make a non-racist argument for immigration control and I'd be receptive to hearing it," he added.
"And you could make an honest argument about what you're saying," Jennings shot back. "You're saying we have to keep the violent people because of [unintelligible] people and it's not true!"
"That's not what I'm saying at all," retorted Michaelson.
Watch the chaos unfold below or at this link.
