Top 10 Times News Anchors Abruptly Ended Interviews

In January 2023, activist and author Steve Almond appeared on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show to discuss his support for more safety protocols at the NFL. Almond, who wrote the book “Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto,” was motivated by the incident in which Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during a game. To emphasize the need for economic pressure on the NFL to improve safety, Almond compared the situation to Fox News’ sexual harassment scandal. He then turned his focus to Ingraham, pointing out how she lost advertisers after an insensitive tweet about a survivor of the Parkland high school tragedy. This clearly struck a nerve, prompting the host to cut the interview short.

Nearly two months after the Israel-Hamas war began, both sides agreed to a temporary ceasefire to exchange hostages. Following this, the Israeli Defense Force announced that they would notify Gazans of upcoming airstrikes so they could evacuate those areas. However, many criticized this plan, arguing that Gazans couldn’t access the information due to a lack of electricity and Wi-Fi. When IDF spokesperson Doron Spielman appeared on Sky News with host Jonathan Samuels, he tried to counter the criticism by noting that some Gazans had used their phones to record the hostage exchanges. But while Spielman was still talking, the show ran out of time, forcing Samuels to cut him off and go to a commercial break.

Back in 2021, after Donald Trump’s electoral loss to Joe Biden, Ohio senator J. D. Vance took to a podcast to voice his opinion. Vance suggested that if Trump were to be re-elected, he should fire every civil servant, and defy any “illegitimate” Supreme Court rulings. Fast forward to 2024, Vance appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, where the host grilled him about his previous comments. Vance apparently defended his earlier statements, though he tried to phrase them differently. After asking if the president must follow legitimate Supreme Court rulings, Stephanopoulos appeared dissatisfied with Vance’s response. As a result, he cut the senator off, shutting down the interview.

In 2018, American journalist Michael Wolff stirred up controversy after hinting at an affair between Donald Trump and a female member of his administration. Although he didn’t specify who, many speculated it was UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, based on a section of his controversial book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” When Wolff appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” he was asked about these claims by host Mika Brzezinski. Throughout the interview, Wolff repeatedly denied implying Haley was involved with Trump, which seemed to frustrate Brzezinski. In what must have been followed with moments of very awkward silence, Brzezinski then decided to end the interview, with Wolff still seated right across from her.

Speaking of Michael Wolff’s book, just days after its release, White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller went on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper to refute its claims. The interview grew heated very fast, as Tapper brought up the explosive allegations made by former Trump campaign executive Steve Bannon, whom Miller labeled “vindictive.” He dismissed Wolff’s book as “a work of very poorly written fiction” and further attempted to discredit Bannon by drastically minimizing his role in the Trump administration. Tapper eventually concluded that all Miller was interested in was praising Trump to gain his approval. So, he abruptly cut him off and moved on to the next topic.

When a veteran criticized the Trump administration on conservative network Newsmax, it sparked a contentious response. Iraq War veteran Joe Saboe, who helped to rescue Americans and their allies from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, appeared on Newsmax in September 2021. Saboe was on with host Grant Stinchfield, discussing the chaos that unfolded after the U.S. pulled American troops out of Iraq. Stinchfield seemed to heap the entire blame on the Biden administration, but Saboe disagreed, pointing out that multiple presidents, including Trump, contributed to the situation. This didn’t sit well with Stinchfield. He yelled at the producers to cut Saboe off and harshly criticized him for his mild rebuke of the former president.

News anchor Brooke Baldwin didn’t take kindly to a male guest’s inappropriate comments during a live panel discussion on her CNN show in September 2017. Baldwin had invited sports writer Keith Reed and radio host Clay Travis to talk about the calls ESPN had received to fire reporter Jemele Hill after she labeled Donald Trump a white supremacist. The conversation was going smoothly until out of nowhere, Travis uttered an unprofessional comment about women’s bodies. Baldwin was initially too stunned to speak, and watched as Reed stepped in to admonish Travis. Once she confirmed she had heard him clearly, Brooke called Travis out, before swiftly ending the interview and apologizing to the audience for not acting sooner.

The first 2024 U.S. presidential debate was already causing a raucous before it even began. In the days leading up to it, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s press secretary, visited CNN to speak with host Kasie Hunt about the event. Right off the bat, Leavitt labeled CNN, where the debate was to be moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, a “hostile environment.” Despite Hunt’s attempts to refocus the discussion on the debate itself, Leavitt persisted in criticizing the network and the moderators. The two eventually began talking over each other, until Hunt decided she’d had enough and yanked Leavitt off the air. The clip of their interaction went viral, with opinions split on whether Hunt’s move was justified.

Still on the 2024 presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump, as well as many of his allies, refused to commit directly to accepting the results, regardless of the outcome. One of such allies, Senator Marco Rubio, who was rumored to be a potential Vice President pick for Trump, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host Kristen Welker. When asked if he would accept the election outcome, Rubio also avoided a direct answer, instead criticizing Democrats for questioning past election results. Despite Welker reminding him that every Democratic candidate who lost immediately conceded, Rubio stayed evasive. With the discussion seemingly going nowhere, Welker cut Rubio off and ended the interview.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene probably didn’t know what to expect when she sat with Australian newswoman Sarah Ferguson to discuss the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The conversation stayed mostly on track until Ferguson shifted to Greene’s support for Donald Trump and whether she would accept the 2024 election results. The congresswoman wanted to stay focused on Assange, but Ferguson pressed on, arguing that the election was a serious topic. Greene’s frustrations eventually boiled over, leading her to question Ferguson’s credentials and ask if she was getting information from the U.S. Democratic Party. With Greene uninterested in indulging her, Ferguson brought the interview to a sudden end, and the congresswoman ripped off her mic just before the cameras cut away.