Friday, September 15, 2017

A Fox Sports Analyst Repeatedly Brought Up "Boobs" On CNN And The Anchor Was Forced To Shut It Down

Clay Travis, right, speaks on CNN Friday.

CNN

A Fox Sports analyst said Friday afternoon on CNN that the only two things he completely believes in are the "First Amendment and boobs" — prompting the network anchor to abruptly end the segment and apologize to viewers for his "entirely inappropriate" remarks.

Clay Travis, who provides commentary for Fox and is also the cofounder of popular sports website Outkick the Coverage, made the comment while speaking on CNN Newsroom with host Brooke Baldwin. Travis, Baldwin, and former ESPN editor Keith Reed were discussing calls by the White House for ESPN to fire host Jemele Hill after she called President Trump a bigot and white supremacist on Twitter.

"I'm a First Amendment absolutist, I believe in only two things completely," Travis said after Baldwin asked him about the ESPN controversy. "The first amendment and boobs."

Minutes later, a shocked Baldwin abruptly ended the conversation, saying "I apologize for him and that."

"I'm done, I'm sorry," Baldwin said. "This is done. This conversation is over. Yanking mics, bye. See ya. That was entirely inappropriate."

Prior to being cut off, Travis spent several minutes defending and repeating his "boobs" comments while Baldwin and Reed watched in apparent disbelief. After the first mention of the anatomy, Baldwin stopped him and asked for clarification.

"I just want to make sure I heard you correctly as a woman anchoring the show," Baldwin interjected. "What did you just say? You believe in the First Amendment and b-double-o-b-s?"

"Boobs," Travis reiterated. "Two things that have only never let me down in this entire country's history, the First Amendment and boobs. So those are the only two things I believe in absolutely in the country."

Travis then resumed discussing the ESPN controversy while Baldwin looked on in apparent disbelief. Moments later, Reed said that he was "astonished at almost everything I just heard."

Finally, Baldwin ended the segment.

Though the exchange on CNN ended abruptly, Baldwin soon tweeted that Travis' comments were "never okay."

Travis then responded by defending himself again, tweeting that he makes those comments every day and now needs "to make tshirts."

He followed that tweet with several others in which he similarly doubled down on the comment. In one tweet, he indicated it was "great" that he said something that "nearly shut down" CNN.

Fox Sports did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment about his comments.

Travis also published a post on Outkick the Coverage about the controversy, writing "that sound you just heard was left wing fauxragers losing their minds and screaming as they pull their hair out over me helping to save boobs and end breast cancer and probably win a Nobel Prize too."

He later tweeted that he had already been invited back to CNN for an appearance on Monday.

However, when reached by BuzzFeed News, a CNN spokesperson said that Travis had not, in fact, been invited back.