DAN GAINOR: The good, the bad, and the absurd: June's wildest political moments and celebrity meltdowns
Thankfully, it all ended peacefully, unless you live in NYC. With the month concluding on a hot note weatherwise, just before July arrived.
1. With friends like these: CNN's "OutFront" host Erin Burnett was out in left field about her time in Iran. The mullahs who run Iran have caused the deaths of hundreds of Americans, including over 600 U.S. servicemen killed by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Burnett still scored with the second stupidest quote of the month: "I remember at one point being in Tehran years ago, and they're chanting 'Death to America' all around me, even as I say, 'Oh, I'm an American, reporting for CNN.' And they were happy to speak to me. So those two sort of jarring realities of the chant and yet, the friendliness, have existed together."
Somehow, that doesn't sound all that "friendly" to most Americans.
2. Democrat no more: Former Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declared she wasn't a Democrat anymore. Based on her many lies and misstatements at the White House, perhaps, KJP is going to create a modern version of the No Nothing Party. Her comments were in pursuit of publicity for her upcoming book, "Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines." Her decision to become "independent" was bashed by both left and right. Maybe the big bipartisan moment in America right now is making fun of former Biden staffers.
3. Go West?: Former seventh-tier presidential candidate and general gadfly Cornel West still shows up in television segments on CNN – this June on "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip." That's the same network that called him, "the eccentric professor," when he resigned from Harvard over a tenure dispute. He took his eccentricity to CNN to blast the United States for using nuclear weapons on Japan in World War II, even though that ended the war. But how he did it was … special.
West complained that it was "not a high moral moment" for "those of us to go all the way back to the United States to kill 250 million people in two days in Hiroshima and Nagasaki." No one corrected him, they just moved on. The look from conservative contributor Scott Jennings that followed was priceless. (For the record, the word the professor wanted was, "thousand" not "million." Oops.)
4. On the run: Maybe I love this story because it's almost local. A pet zebra escaped and went on runabout (the Australian walkabout but faster) in Tennessee, dominating the news for over a week because he wasn't easy to catch and, zebras are cute. "Ed" the Zebra broke free and ran down I-24 at one point, causing the road to be closed. Even then, he slipped away, eventually being rounded up and helicoptered back home in a net, taking in the sights above the beautiful mountains of the Volunteer state. Ed might have been chasing his glory like the zebra in the movie, "Racing Stripes." (That cast shockingly included Hayden Panettiere and voices of Jeff Foxworthy, Steve Harvey and Snoop Dog. Everybody has a mortgage to pay.)
5. Alternative media: Billionaire Mark Cuban criticized life in the liberal social media Fortress of Solitude, saying it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Cuban said Bluesky, which was created to be a lefty alternative to Twitter/X, is toxic and "hateful." He used the platform to criticize … the platform: "Even if you agree with 95% of what a person is saying on a topic, if there is one point that you might call out as being more of a gray area, they will call you a fascist etc." This isn't especially a surprise to conservatives who saw how the left managed every other platform from Twitter to YouTube, censoring content like it was the old Soviet Union or the Biden White House.
Cuban also made news this month claiming the Kamala Harris campaign considered him as a possible vice president. The "Shark Tank" star wisely admitted one reason he declined was, "I'm not very good as the No. 2 person." Like him or not, he would outshine Harris on his worst day. You don't get to be a shark by being easygoing.
6. Millionaires vs. billionaires: Every month, it's just a question of which Hollywood actor/actress will say the stupidest thing. It's quite a contest. This month, it's "Avengers" star Mark Ruffalo. The Incredibly Hulky One went to a "No Kings" protest to complain about … rich folks and "White people." Now, while Ruffalo appears to represent both groups, he's also a true believer of lefty garbage. So, at least he's consistent. He told a lefty activist group, "We get to see who is really making our lives unbearable and making us so desperate. It's not the immigrants, it's the billionaires."
Not the millionaires, just the folks with the "B." Why? Because Ruffalo has around $90 million himself, if Celebrity Networth is accurate. That's a lot closer to billionaire than me and most people reading this. Most of us just have the "air" part.
7. 'Tinfoil hat moment': Remember supposed comedian Kathy Griffin (she held the fake, bloody head of The Donald back in 2017) and former CNN host Don Lemon? Yeah, most people don't either. But they're still around and discussing 2024 election denial on "The Don Lemon Show" podcast, because it's OK when they do it.
Griffin claimed, "I do not think he won in a free and fair election. How do you like that, lefties? Yeah, I said it. I'm Kathy Griffin, and I do not think Trump won in a free and fair election." Lemon was on her side in a tepid way, "You're not far off. I won't say that I disagree with you, but, you know, I'm an evidence person. I like to see the evidence." We could deny that Griffin is funny. At least we have evidence for that.
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