CNN analyst Angela Rye nailed a GOP activist to the wall on Monday over his comments describing veteran White House reporter April Ryan as “spicy” after her tense exchange with the president last week.
Ryan appeared on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” this week to discuss President Donald Trump‘s recent attacks on African-American journalists, including Ryan. She was joined by Trump supporter and political consultant Niger Innis, who accused the American Urban Radio Networks reporter of getting “spicy” with presidents in the past.
Angela Rye ripped into Niger Innis (right) for describing April Ryan as “spicy.” (CNN / video screenshot)
“I think he misstepped,” Innis said of Trump’s behavior at a post-election press conference where he repeatedly ordered Ryan to “sit down” as she tried to ask a question.
“But Ryan is a little different,” he added. “She’s been spicy with the president. She’s been spicy with [Barack] Obama, too.”
His comment didn’t sit well with Rye, who wasted no time ripping into him.
“Let me help you on spicy,” she began. “It’s a flavor of hot Cheetos and Buffalo wings, not a human being asking questions and demanding accountability from the highest person in the land. Spicy is not what you call a human being who’s asking a question and demanding accountability from the highest office in the land.”
“She does represent American Urban Radio Network, but all that means that there are urban communities over the country that expect April to ask, as you would call, ‘buffalo wing spicy’ questions,” she continued.
Innis laughed off Rye’s criticism and accused her of suggesting he was a “bigot.”
Their heated exchange comes after Trump publicly derided three Black female journalists in a matter of days. After his testy exchange with Ryan, the president dubbed her a “loser” who “doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.”
“She gets publicity and then she gets a pay raise, or she gets a contract with – I think CNN – but she’s very nasty, and she shouldn’t be,” he told reporters last week.
At the same press conference following Tuesday’s midterm elections, Trump accused PBS Newshour journalist Yamiche Alcindor of asking a “racist question” when she asked him to clarify his use of the word “nationalist” amid public perception that it may be emboldening white nationalists.
Trump later lashed out at CNN correspondent Abby D. Phillip, who questioned him about the Robert Mueller Russia investigation in the wake of Matthew Whitaker’s appointment to acting attorney general. Trump forced former AG Jeff Sessions to resign late last week.
“What a stupid question that is,” Trump responded. “What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot, you ask a lot of stupid questions.”
Watch more in the video below.
