The annual New Year’s Eve celebration on CNN has become a notably raucous on-air affair in recent years, but as 2024 came to an end there was one segment of Tuesday’s broadcast that seemed to even shock co-h0st Anderson Cooper.
Comedian Whitney Cummings was invited to give a humorous recap of the year, and she surprisingly chose to skewer the left, focusing specifically on Kamala Harris and the very network on which she was appearing.
According to Newsweek:
During the special, Cummings says “The Democrats couldn’t hold a primary … they were too busy holding a body upright.” This comment is a reference to Biden, and criticisms over his age and performance during the 2024 presidential election race.
It’s hard to see Cooper’s reaction from under his umbrella but co-host Cohen has a “mock shocked” face, before Cummings asks, “are we still rolling, am I off?” Cohen, managing a thin smile, responds: “Go for it.”
“It was amazing that the pro-choice party didn’t give their voters one when it came to the presidential candidate,” Cummings said.
ADVERTISEMENTShe then added, “Kamala was forced on us so hard you’d think she was patented by Pfizer.”
The uncharacteristically tough take on the left was met with a mix of disbelief and cheers from social media users:
CNN just aired this holy shlit
pic.twitter.com/3F0ZkIQyT7
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 1, 2025
NEW: Anderson Cooper stands completely speechless after Whitney Cummings says Dems couldn’t hold a primary because they were too busy holding up a dead body.
“It was amazing that the Pro-Choice Party didn’t give their voters one…”pic.twitter.com/EtxIcMKRXZ
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2025
“Democrats couldn’t hold a primary this year. They were too busy holding up a body.”
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 1, 2025
Whitney Cummings: “Kamala was forced on us so hard, you’d think she was patented by Pfizer”
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 1, 2025
Cummings also weighed in on the brewing controversy:
this is what I said at the end of my roast set on CNN tonight that I zoomed through beacause I was running out of time (and scared) : Since I only have a minute left and I’m live on an establishment media, I figured I’d list some of things mainstream media will never cover:…
— Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) January 1, 2025
HuffPost provided its own coverage:
After the roast, as Cummings bantered with Cohen about her performance, she joked that Cooper — who had not yet said anything — was “melting down.”
“I only understood like half the references,” Cooper said. “I’m not a pop culture [person.]”
Her roast drew a very mixed reaction on social media, with many right-wing pages praising it as hilarious and epic, and others characterizing it as “weird and unfunny,” “telling” and a desperate attempt to be “edgy.”
CNN did not include it in its highlight reel of its New Year’s Eve coverage.
Here’s a clip of the network’s highlights, sans Cummings’ performance:
