CNN swiftly cut to a commercial break after anchor Wolf Blitzer looked like he was about to vomit during an interview with House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) on Thursday.
As Raskin talked about the dispute in Colorado over Donald Trump appearing on the ballot, Blitzer made a series of pained expressions as he seemingly tried to stifle himself from getting sick on air.
Nearly a full minute after seemingly silently retching, CNN cut Blitzer’s feed, leaving Raskin full screen to finish his remarks, at which point vomit-like sounds could be heard.
CNN then abruptly played a commercial, cutting Raskin off mid-sentence, in a snafu earlier reported on by Mediaite.
When the segment came back after the brief break, CNN’s chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid appeared in Blitzer’s place in front of “The Situation Room” backdrop.
“Wolf had to step away, he’ll be back,” Reid said before continuing on with the show.
CNN told The Washington Post’s media reporter Will Sommer that “Wolf wasn’t feeling 100% while anchoring Thursday night.”
Blitzer did not return before the end of his 6 p.m. weeknight show, prompting a flurry of concerned fans on social media asking if he was ok.
Others quipped that “Raskin’s LIES are enough to make anyone vomit.”
Following his show, Blitzer took to X to assure viewers: “I’m fine! Thanks for the well wishes. I’ll see you back in the Situation Room soon.”
Meanwhile, CNN’s morning programming was upended earlier this week when the ratings-challenged network announced that it was canceling “CNN This Morning.”
The scandal-scarred morning news show was launched in November 2022 by former CEO Chris Licht with a trio of hosts: Poppy Harlow, Kaitlan Collins and Don Lemon, who has since been fired.
The show’s current co-anchors, Harlow and Phil Mattingly, will be reassigned, as the segment will no longer air from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., CNN boss Mark Thompson said in a memo to staff Monday.
The network will abandon producing the morning show in New York City — with the 50-person staff that worked on “CNN This Morning” from its glittering Hudson Yards studio asked to reapply for jobs.
The “CNN This Morning” brand will continue under a new format with Kasie Hunt, the former MSNBC reporter, anchoring the show from Washington, DC., from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., according to CNN.
A source close to the situation told The Post on Monday that the move was part of CNN’s larger effort to start “doubling down on all things politics.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
