What was meant to be an enlightening segment discussing Mitt Romney’s past turned into a fiery battle between Tamron Hall and Tim Carney on Friday.
The host of MSNBC’s NewsNation quickly showed Tim Carney that he was in her house. After Carney began talking over Hall, accusing the network of focusing too much on Romney’s past, the host quickly responded by shutting him down and shutting off his mic.
Americans are no strangers to TV drama, but seeing it unravel live on the political talk show was a bit surprising. So what was the question that set off the retired American diplomat? Hall simply asked Carney for his opinion on Romney’s testy reaction to a reporter who questioned him about marijuana on Thursday. As if he didn’t even hear Hall’s question, Carney began his attack on the network. “What you’re doing here is a typical media trick. You hype up a story and justify the second-day coverage of the story by saying ‘Oh, well people are talking about it,’” Carney argued. It seemed as appeared Carney didn’t know how feisty the normally reserved host could really be.
With the blink of an eye, Hall was on the attack and she was showing no mercy. “You don’t have to answer a single question I ask you,” Hall interrupted while Carney was still struggling to make his point. “You didn’t have to accept the invitation to come on. You knew what we were going to be discussing.” Although Carney seemed a bit surprised, he wasn’t ready to back down. He came back at Hall, talking over her for a few brief seconds before Hall said the one thing that would begin to turn Carney’s face red right before our eyes. “You’re kind of in my house here,” she reminded Carney as he found himself with nothing to say.
When Carney finally received another chance to speak, he certainly chose the wrong words as he stated, “You’re bringing up a meta-story here… I’m trying to go meta-meta on you and say -” He was quickly cut off as Hall replied, “You don’t want me to go anything on you because you’re actually irritating me right now.” She went on to reveal that 50 years ago she was a “much tougher kid” than Mitt Romney was.
Even after Carney finally agreed to discuss the topic with Hall, she decided she was fed up with his rude behavior. “You’re not gonna come on and insult me. You’re not gonna come on and insult the network when you knew what you were going to talk about,” Hall charged just as she cut off his mic and declared she was “done” before moving on to talk to the next guest.
Viewers were so amazed by the spectacle that literally in a matter of seconds after Carney’s mic was cut, Hall became a trending topic on Twitter. Fans of the show tweeted that Hall “schooled” Carney and even “ripped a layer of skin” off the Missouri-born consultant. Carney took a chance to respond to the incident by tweeting “The question I was sent for the Romney bullying segment was ‘Does the story matter?’ So I was answering it, not dodging it.”
Perhaps talking over a guest and cutting off his mic in the middle of an interview isn’t the best etiquette for an on air host, but it seems as if most of the viewers commended the quick-witted host for having the guts to defend herself along with the network.
