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CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five. Polling Shows Americans with Record Low Trust of U.S. Institutions including Media; President Trump Orders Federal Forces into Washington D.C. in Show of Force against Crime; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Announces Restoration of Confederate Statue in Washington D.C.; "South Park" Episodes Parody President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; Crypto Meme Group Identified as Source of Trend of Throwing Sex Toys onto Court of WNBA Games. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired August 09, 2025 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:42]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. Donald Trump sends George Orwell's fantasy back to the future.

Plus, which history matters? For the Trump administration, Confederate statues rise again, while anything deemed woke disappears.

Also, as many of the president's critics get muzzled, one finds it's voice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're heading to a location that might be filled with illegals. Let's take these bad hombres down.

DEAN: "South Park" delivers a bark.

And --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's ridiculous. It's dumb. It's stupid.

DEAN: The mystery of the flying dildos at WNBA games is solved. Are the incidents silly or sexist?

Here in studio, Kara Swisher, Bomani Jones, Katie Frost, and Ashley Allison.

It's the weekend. Join the conversation at a "TABLE FOR FIVE".

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: A very good morning to you. I'm Jessica Dean from New York.

And if there is a theme that's emerging for Donald Trump's sequel, it could be the rise of propaganda. The word gets thrown around in political debates, and every administration in each party is guilty. But listen to what's happened just this week. He fired the woman who reports the jobs numbers because he didn't like the numbers. He called polls rigged and faked because he doesn't like them. He called the Epstein files a hoax, likely because his name is reportedly in them. He canceled satellite missions that tracked climate change data because he doesn't want to believe the data. And he continues to call for more of his critics to be canceled because he does not like what they say. And he's ignoring science, as the HHS canceled $500 million of cancer vaccine research.

The trend, of course, nothing new. He tried changing election results, crowd sizes, even weather maps. So what happens when a nation cannot trust its institutions, its information, even reality? We are finding out in a real time experiment.

And joining me now at the table, we have a great panel with us today. Kara, I want to start with you. There is this new Gallup poll that shows Americans confidence in major U.S. institutions has sunk to a new low -- 28 percent of U.S. adults have confidence. And the numbers are bad across the board, 37 percent Republicans, 25 percent independents 26 percent Democrats, again, the lowest in 46 years. What's the impact of that?

KARA SWISHER, PODCAST HOST, "PIVOT" AND "ON": Well, huge. I mean, it's been happening for a long time. This is not a new trend. A lot of people are distrustful because when they get news flooded to them and a lot of misinformation, which is part of the whole media ecosystem now. We used to have an information desert. Now we have an information flood, which is just probably more damaging in a lot of ways.

And so this isn't a new, fresh thing. It's just that the government itself is now starting to do this. The institutions like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, have become politicized. Every part of it has become politicized and called into question.

And if you say the word "hoax" or lie enough, people start to believe it. Not necessarily the lie, but that everything is suspect. And so, you know, it's very -- again, it's an old trope where lies tend to win over facts. They move around the world a lot faster.

DEAN: They certainly do. And Bomani, isn't what Kara is saying right there, it's that it just keeps happening again and again and again to where people who even want to find good information throw their hands up and say, I can't trust anything.

BOMANI JONES, HOST, "THE RIGHT TIME WITH BOMANI JONES," PODCAST: Yes. No, no, I mean, it's a broader societal issue that, of course, the Internet has exacerbated because there are no barriers to entry for information, right. And then there is a profit mechanism in place that rewards more information faster. Go, go, go the whole way.

And I also agree that there's a broader issue of lack of faith in institutions around the world, across the board. What feels so different this time is they playing right in your face, right? Like it's not as though there's any attempt to finesse this or to play it. I'd say the step father, we're talking about the things that Trump does is if you look at any interview or any press availability now that happens in the Oval Office, they have whittled out all the hard questions. Like, all of that is gone. They've made it as easy as possible to do whatever they want there. So when I see those polls, it's one thing for people to say that we don't trust the Institutions. It's another thing to look at institutions who see that you don't trust them, and they're like, oh, just watch what we got next.

[10:05:00]

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think this is the goal, though. I mean, when you look at countries who have actually faced dictators and fascism, like one of the strategies is you have to undermine institutions so that people don't rely on them anymore. So if you do want democracy to fall or you don't want it to be actually to be presented as a democracy, but not actually operate in truths that the people get to choose, those numbers are not problematic to you. They're actually that your strategy is winning.

I think a couple of things from everything that the two have just said is, one, people are flooded with mis and disinformation, and the way the brain works is the more you hear things, the more you start to believe them.

But also, this is not just -- I'm surprised I'm about to say this -- this is not just Donald Trump's fault. I think we have seen, particularly with politicians, people don't feel like politicians are being honest on both sides of the spectrum. And so there is a real reckoning that has to actually happen where people are honest that the systems haven't worked for a very long time. But the way to fix the system is not to lie to people about what you can offer them but actually act as a true arbiter of truth. And I do think that some people are getting better at that. But this is -- it was -- it didn't just happen overnight. And people saw the opportunity to seize on it. And it is coming in full manifestation at this moment.

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I'm going to say there's actually some agreement across the aisle here, because I agree with what you're saying. This is not just a one side of the aisle issue. This has been happening for a very long time. And I would say COVID in many ways exacerbated this, because people were told -- remember, it was two weeks to slow the spread. Everyone was told that. and that was what the experts told us. We believed it. And then, of course, they didn't know. It was an evolving crisis. But people then were very distrustful of what was happening because everything was being changed on them constantly.

Then we had the Biden administration, where a lot of people, the average viewer at home, saw what was happening and were concerned about President Biden's condition. But the people around him didn't want to open him up to any questioning. They didn't want to do any cognitive tests. And they said, basically, don't believe your lying eyes. There's nothing to see here. But the American people were very concerned about that. So that's, again, just feeding into that distrust. There's people in power don't want you to know what's really going on. It makes people distrustful. And so they want to dig deeper and try and find their own information.

SWISHER: But even Trump really did. I mean, social media and Trump and probably gerrymandering, a lot of things mashed together. I mean, from his very beginning, from the very beginning of the crowds at the at the at the inaugural, the original inauguration, the first one, it was one of these things. And it goes back, it does go back to, to Joseph Goebbels. It really does, just repeat things over and over again. Don't believe your lying eyes. What you're seeing here isn't true.

And Donald Trump has made his career on doing this. I'm a rich guy. Oh, I went bankrupt seven times. Like, whatever it was, that's what he is in a lot of ways. And he's very good at it. And especially with the help of someone like Steve Bannon. If you -- I have spent time listening to what Steve Bannon says, you're welcome for the rest of you. But he's quite brilliant on the idea of flooding the zone, making people distrust. They're classic, they're like classic skills. And in the Internet age, one of the things I said at the beginning of the Internet age is before you could have one person lie to a lot of people. Now you can direct a million lies to a million people that suit them exactly right. And so it's a very different skill set. And now with A.I., you can turbocharge that even further.

DEAN: No doubt about it.

JONES: This is the Steve Bannon endgame. I mean, it was it was made very clear in 2017 with the game was. We're going to basically destroy the institutions that currently exist, and the technique that you were going to use to do this, like, this is here. And with the Internet, you say it is, so I think that when we talk about social media, it has become such a broad term that you just throw out there. But it's it created a level of tribalism that then made it easier to lie to everybody because you just give them the lies that you want.

SWISHER: And give access to people who are liars. I did a very famous interview with Mark Zuckerberg where he said the holocaust deniers don't mean to lie. And I was -- I was like, that's their job, actually, to lie about what happened. And I think one of the things is a lot of these tech people didn't realize that -- well, they didn't realize, I think they did, the downstream effects. If you have a lot of antisemitism and lots of people who didn't have voices and were shoved under the ground because they were liars and heinous people, when they get to emerge and say things, it creates a toxic waste downstream that we don't anticipate years later.

ALLISON: And there's no regulation right now, right? So our policies haven't kept up with our distribution of information. And no shade to the people on Capitol Hill, but like most of them, don't even know how to log into their accounts, right?

(CROSS TALK)

FROST: I'm pretty sure Chuck Grassley runs his own X account because he tweets about his vacuum cleaner. You know, so he obviously --

JONES: My father is 88 years old and has been a veteran of this Internet as it's gone. I think a lot of them play that game and they talk about, oh, I don't know anything. But at this point -- ALLISON: I don't understand. I hear some may understand, but in some of the conversations that I've had with them, it's troubling, honestly, the lack of understanding.

SWISHER: Do they understand chemicals and they make chemical legislation. Do they understand lying? They can do it.

[10:10:02]

ALLISON: That's true. I'm not trying to give them an out.

SWISHER: They're being inundated with money is the problem, by lobbyists.

FROST: Not understanding something has never stopped Congress from acting.

DEAN: Correct. All right, stay with us, everyone. Up next, Donald Trump's threats of using the military on U.S. soil are coming true as he sends the feds into the D.C. streets and carries out deportation raids across America.

Plus, Confederate statues are back again as the administration restores some history while erasing other parts of history. We'll discuss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:11]

DEAN: Welcome back. Right now the feds are flooding the streets of Washington, D.C., in a show of force against crime. The president making that order after the reported assault of a DOGE employee by a group of teenagers. It is worth noting crime is down overall there, but that hasn't stopped Donald Trump from jumping at any chance to flex his military power. We saw it in California this summer, and with ICE raids all across the country, now in his threats to federalize the Capitol.

We're back at the table now. We have certainly seen this continuing to be a theme. Is this an obsession with the military? What is this?

SWISHER: Yes. Yes. I mean, come on. I mean, I live in D.C. Crime is down. I mean, there is going to be crime. You live in a city. And of course, it has to be this guy, right, who I feel bad for him, but he becomes a symbol for Trump to -- any excuse he uses, one event in a massive city is cause for doing this. He did it in dc before when he was at the church with the Bible and the troops. And he loves this stuff.

And so, you know, and it's always been an issue in D.C. with, with the with the tension between federal, no matter what is they want to run the city. And there's always been some sort of murder or some crime that creates that. But this is -- it's very safe. I raise my kids there, so I'm good with D.C.

DEAN: You do feel safe.

SWISHER: I do.

DEAN: And go ahead.

FROST: There's always a headline that tends to grab attention. The overall statistics are down, that doesn't change the fact that you turn on the news and you see the image of a bloodied victim. And that's what then motivates people, and they say, OK, this is horrible. We need to do something about it. I mean, I tell my parents I feel safe in D.C. That doesn't change the fact that when they turn on the news, they're worried about me.

JONES: But there's a lot of steps between a bloody victim and getting the actual military involved, right? Like, generally speaking, you would think there'd be somebody involved who'd say, buddy, I don't know, man. This kind of makes us look bad, doesn't it? And that is completely out of the window, right?

FROST: There's been definitely a merging of people viewing law enforcement measures as military operations. That is where I'll say things have kind of blurred the line. But we're still talking about whether it's ICE, that's law enforcement is the view there. And so yes, this needs to happen because what is ICE's job? Their job is to secure the border. And one of the biggest problems we've had is there is an incentive, if you get here, you can stay here. There's nothing really waiting for you on the other side. So when you have these different operations that are going out there for the sole purpose of serving as a deterrent, say this is what happens if you come into this country illegally, don't even try to come here.

ALLISON: I think, though that we're talking about two different things here. We're talking about deploying the military in cities because crime does happen. And a federal agency called ICE. I can debate both of them, but I want to go back to what this -- what you introduced of there is an obsession about using the military. And it kind of goes back to our last segment about saying things -- crime happens everywhere, saying things and manipulating them to make people believe a certain reality is happening that is not.

The reality is, like most urban areas and large inner cities, crime is down across the board. It actually has been down for years. And yet this president ran on the fact that this was the most unsafe America that we were living in, and that just wasn't a fact. But people believed it because he said it over and over.

And now if you feel like you are unsafe, he is trying to manipulate the American people to believe that we actually need military in the street. And when you think about when military actually comes, it's when the institutions that are said to protect municipal, state, and federal no longer function, which goes back to our first segment, is like lack of faith and institutions.

SWISHER: It's why D.C. should be a state. Like that's be clear, like. This is more people -- Montana has like so many fewer people. This should be a state so that they can govern themselves rather than be subject to federal, constant federal wrangling. It happens all the time.

DEAN: Two notes here. Yes, two notes here. One, to your point, he has this Truth Social from Wednesday where he talks about the law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute minors as adults. He says if dc doesn't get its act together, we'll have no choice but to take federal control of the city and run the city how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they're not going to get away with it anymore, but kept using the language "federalize the city." It's worth noting D.C. overwhelmingly a blue city, not a state, as we just noted, but also that he sent in the troops in California, a blue state. Do you think that --

SWISHER: He sent them into the -- there was a recent shooting, I think in Montana, in one of the states. He didn't send anyone in there. I mean, why didn't he send them there? I mean, that was a terrible shooting. That was crime, I guess.

One of the things that drove me crazy was during the whole period was San Francisco being the most unsafe place when crime was down. They had some issues during COVID and issues of homelessness, largely due to a legal issue.

[10:20:01]

It's now you go there, and there's big stories now, A.I. is reviving San Francisco. It was never what FOX News was desperately trying to make it. It's doing great now. And you just have to do this in order to demonize cities or especially blue --

President Obama Well, there's also a part that's bigger than Trump that I think is important, which is, as you militarize the police, it's only a half step before you become make the military do the actions of the police. Like it's not that much of a leap for you. If they're walking around looking like the military already, then if you feel like the police are not enough, you're only next step then is to call the 82nd Airborne.

FROST: But also remember, we've had many people undermining the institution of law enforcement. Law enforcement has been, a lot of people been talking about how terrible law enforcement is.

JONES: I don't think that's undermined -- that's not undermining the institution of law enforcement as much as asking them to stop killing you for no damn reason. Right? Like, I don't think those two things are the same.

FROST: You can disagree with, like, you know, the approaches they're taking. What I'm saying is we talk about the institutions people don't trust anymore, when people in the city feel like they can't trust a law enforcement officer, because what they're being told about law enforcement, what does that do?

JONES: I think that --

ALLISON: My grandfather was in law enforcement, was a police officer who really did believe in community policing. You know, there are moments to this day people come up to me and said, he had a choice to throw me in a jail cell or help me change my life, and he helped me change my life. That type of law enforcement I'm all for.

I'm not all for people standing on somebody's neck for minutes and watching them plead for their mother or their life, or strangling them, or shooting them in the car. That is what is actually causing distrust in law enforcement. And I think there are appropriate solutions to actually fix the problem. What is not one is making them militarized and bring in the military.

SWISHER: Wouldn't you feel more unsafe in D.C. if there was a soldier on the street?

ALLISON: What's happening? What in the world?

JONES: When you go to countries where they're just soldiers on the streets, you don't feel like, oh, everything's going to be OK here.

DEAN: All right, guys, up next, which history matters? The Trump administration is getting rid of many things if they deem it too woke. But they're bringing back others, including Confederate statues.

Plus, how "South Park" has suddenly become the loudest critic of Trump's second term.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Satan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not in the mood right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:26:44]

DEAN: We talked at the top of the show about Donald Trump's efforts to erase reality, and this week he's doing it with history, at least certain types of history. The administration bringing back two Confederate statues, including the only one in D.C. honoring a Confederate leader. It was toppled by protesters in 2020. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also returning a statue depicting a woman as Mamie that critics say whitewashes slavery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We recognize our history. We don't erase it, Will. We don't follow the woke lemmings off the cliff that want to tear down statues. We're not tearing stuff down. We're done with that. We're putting statues back. We're putting paintings back. We're recognizing our history. We're restoring the names of bases as we've done across the country, because we're proud of our history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Not all history, though. Hegseth has ordered the Navy to change a ship named after Harvey Milk, a gay rights icon. Ships named after Harriet Tubman and Thurgood Marshall also on that list. And as part of a DEI purge, the Pentagon marked for removal photographs of the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.

So let's talk through this a little bit, because, again, history here seems to be subjective and in the eye of the beholder.

SWISHER: History for thee, but not -- for me, but not for thee, kind of thing. Hegseth, I don't -- I can't even go there with that. He should get himself a drink or something. But one of the things that's really critical here is I think they should have taken those Confederate statues and put them in a museum. I don't -- it's not about destroying them or erasing history. It's putting them in the proper place. They don't deserve a place of honor is what they don't deserve. But they do deserve to be looked at and discussed and talk about all the hard topics that we should talk about.

And I think probably there was a little too much, unless it's like, take them all down and get rid of them. And what it did is played into the hands of the right, who like the same thing with the Sydney Sweeney. There were like four people in Brooklyn who were mad about that ad, leftists, and suddenly everyone was. I didn't even -- I was like, what? We're mad about this? We're not mad about this. It's fine. Whatever.

And I think that's what happens is it gives people, like he has to get all high dudgeon about the whole thing. No one's erasing history. It's putting it where it belongs, and that's where it should go, I think.

FROST: It's hard to make the case that you're not trying to erase history when we see the images of them being toppled by protesters. If you want to remove statues, which not every monument needs to stay where it is forever, and we can all agree that. But let's remove -- if they need to be removed, let's do it in a very orderly manner. Let's do it by like a vote.

SWISHER: They don't want to remove them at all. And by the way, that statue that they're putting back up is going to be toppled again.

(CROSS TALK)

JONES: I love watching those statues get toppled. I don't even know why we need to pretend like they needs to be some orderly way to do it. That was the bomb. It wasn't terribly different than when they took them statues down of Saddam Hussein over there in Iraq. In fact, there's a few more of them I feel like that we could get to. The idea that we have to pay a certain measure of homage to another country -- this isn't even -- the idea I think the part that's the most problematic is to operate as though this is the history of our country that we're talking about and the people that we're naming about. No, it's some people that we beat down this one time.

And so, no, we don't have to be orderly about it. We don't have to honor it. We don't have to do any of those things. My question in this real time is, who asked for this?

[10:30:00] Who are the people that were just clamoring for putting back up Confederate statues? Who wanted to change the name back to Fort Bragg? Who really cares that much outside of Stephen Miller? And I haven't seen any evidence that those people really exist to the point where you felt like you needed to do this.

FROST: I had to look it up. I hadn't even heard of the Confederate that they're putting back in D.C., and he was apparently a big prominent leader in the freemasons. The freemasons wanted to really petition to get that statue erected in the first place.

JONES: Which freemasons, right? It wasn't all of them, right? You know. It was a faction.

ALLISON: I mean, I think a lot of things have been said here that are true. I think there are people who want them back.

SWISHER: I would agree.

JONES: I'm saying to the point where you care enough about it to actually be done. There are people. How many people are we really talking about?

ALLISON: I think there's more maybe than we think. Now, if that's like what they wake up every morning thinking about. No. But on the top 20 perhaps? I'm just saying, like I got to, as someone who grew up with a Klan rally every year in their hometown, like, I think there are people here who are frustrated by it. And they do feel validated when they see this administration do it. So they are throwing -- it's like they can't get the Epstein files off the news. So let me throw them a bone and try and like make a hard pivot.

DEAN: Is that what you think part of this is about with the timing?

ALLISON: I mean they are like trying to get off the story as much as possible, and like, their base is upset. And so they're trying to throw some bones to their base. OK.

But I agree with you, Kara. I know that some people are like, get rid of him and destroy him. I think if you don't learn your history, you're destined to repeat himself. And I don't know if we need thousands of them in the museum, perhaps, but maybe one or two and be like, this was the bad guy. They wanted to own people. That's not good. Let's not go back to that. These are the freedom fighters that actually brought liberation and justice. And like, that's the way we want to go and believed in democracy and that every living creature should have their vote had. I think there's a way to tell the story. I was never with totally disregarding them, because I think when you erase it, it can be --

SWISHER: Yes, I mean, there could be lots of things you could do with them. I have a piece of the Berlin wall, you know. Yes. I'm not for the berlin wall, but I think it's important to preserve.

ALLISON: Tell the story. JONES: But I would say this, that the purpose of the presentation of

history by a government within a society is not the purpose of educating. It is not the purpose of creating a broad picture. It is to present an agreed upon set of facts that we can talk about that, if nothing else, provides a measure of pride that people have in the place that they are in, right? And at least a lot of controversial questions about how much it is that you should present.

However, the idea that these are things that should present national pride, it's not simply an idea of we're doing this for a set of people. To have these things in the places that you have them is to imply that this is something broader that this nation should be proud of, should be proud of losers. That does not sound like the America that people told me about.

DEAN: All right. Up next, "South Park" spoofs the Trump administration two episodes in a row. Why is this type of criticism resonating so much?

Plus, is this an idea lost Democrats could get behind?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, AUTHOR, RADIO HOST: I would love to see Jon Stewart run in 2028. If we're talking about like a change agent coming from the outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:37:52]

DEAN: The conversation this summer has largely been centered on the silencing of Donald Trump's critics in Hollywood, but now were seeing the emergence of them. "South Park", which is no stranger, of course, to American culture, is out with another episode panning the administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Kristi Noem, head of Homeland Security. A few years ago, I had to put my puppy down by shooting it in the face because sometimes doing what's important means doing what's hard.

All right, recruits, this is it. We're heading to a location that might be filled with illegals. Let's take these bad hombres down.

Remember, only detain the brown ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: This season's first episode, which depicted Trump in bed with Satan, scored the biggest audience for a premiere in 26 years. The second episode even bigger than that. And it begs the question, is parody the most effective way for critics to take on Trump? I have to say, at this table, this is already elicited a lot of

conversation within the break. But "South Park" is hitting a nerve.

SWISHER: Yes. This is funny. It's funny and fun.

DEAN: You remember when "Saturday Night Live" did Sarah Palin?

SWISHER: Yes. It hit a nerve. It was funny. And everyone was like, oh yes. And so that's what's happening here, is they -- and by the way, "South Park" goes after everyone. There's a lot of, like, yes, lots of people are offended by it. And that's their job is to offend people.

DEAN: Everybody, offend everybody.

SWISHER: But the people in power, that's who you offend the most. That's what you go for who is in power and who is hypocritical. And right now that happens to be Kristi Noem, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance this week.

DEAN: Can I -- I want to play a clip of Kristi Noem responding to this, because I think it's worth discussing. Let's listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It's so lazy to just constantly make fun of women for how they look. Only the liberals and the extremists do that. If they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that. But clearly they can't. They just pick something petty like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWISHER: She's so woke.

DEAN: Well, also, Donald Trump has criticized plenty of women.

SWISHER: yes, but he's not funny.

FROST: Well, "South Park" proves you should be able to go after everyone, which is what they're doing successfully. And you can mock people as long as you're making a profit. That's the thing people talk about, Colbert. They say, oh, he's being silenced because of the position he's taking on President Trump. Well, he was losing money for his network. He was losing viewers. And "South Park", as you said, record numbers for them.

[10:40:04]

So my sister always told me, she goes I can be offensive if I'm funny at the same time. You can't be offensive and not be funny. They are going after people and they're mocking the administration, but they're making a profit, and they go after everyone at the same time. So that is how you do it.

JONES: I think they're going after everybody at the same time may help, but I don't think with Donald Trump leaned on them about Colbert, and he was like, and on top of that, they're not making any money, right? Like, I don't think that that is the impetus for how he wound up getting that. That became a justification after the fact. But part of what makes this stand out so much with what they doing with "South Park" is the fact that in the midst of the Paramount situation and everything else, they're doubling down on it.

And to the point where it obscures. I did not see the second episode, but the first episode, those jokes about NPR were not laughing with NPR. Those were jokes on NPR.

FROST: Yes, they were.

JONES: The Trump thing jumps out, but they're giving it to everybody. And that is probably the reason that they could float a little.

ALLISON: And I mean, the story is still young. I mean, I think "South Park" is doubling down because I think they're actually saying, like, what are you going to try and do? Like, will you prove our point? Can you actually let comedy serve as a vehicle of truth telling? I was always taught there's always some truth in every joke. And I think what "South Park" is doing is using comedy as a way to expose some truths that are happening in our country. And a lot of people say you laugh to keep from crying.

SWISHER: Yes, it's a way. And I don't think those guys care anyway whatsoever. They never have and they never will. And so take it or leave it, is kind of their thing.

DEAN: I want to play another clip kind of adjacent to all of this. But Charlamagne Tha God has some thoughts on who should be running for president. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, AUTHOR, RADIO HOST: I would love to see Jon Stewart run in 2028. If we're talking about like a change agent coming from the outside that's really going to shake things up, and somebody that I feel like can speak to, you know, all people. Plus we actually -- he's a celebrity who actually knows what they're talking about. Maybe a Jon Stewart-Colbert ticket because, you know, Colbert is not going to have a job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Stewart-Colbert 2028. Anyone?

ALLISON: I think the one that Charlamagne said about Jon Stewart -- I like Jon Stewart -- is that he actually got some legislation passed. And so actually understanding how --

SWISHER: The firefighters --

ALLISON: Exactly.

DEAN: And he also was very heavily involved with burn pits with that legislation.

ALLISON: Yes. So he understands how to actually move legislation.

I just think though that that clip is even more telling is that we are seeking people who don't seek careers in public service to lead us versus -- and so you have to you have to ask, why? Like, yes, Donald Trump is a celebrity that is in office. But Obama also had that celebrity type affection for people. He had more experience in public policy than Donald Trump. But I've been saying this for a while. I don't think the next couple of presidents are going to be your cookie cutter -- that actually win, your cookie cutter type of person that like, grew up saying, I'm going to be president of the United States.

JONES: I think in the late 70s early 80s, the late, great Neil Postman made the point that we will reach a time where a prerequisite for running for political office in this country will be previously established national celebrity. And we are here, and that is terrifying. Terrifying.

SWISHER: You could argue Obama was the first celebrity president, though, in a lot of way. Because culture, everything is downstream from culture, right? And Obama really captured a lot of culture.

DEAN: People thought he was. Clinton wanted to be the first big major celebrity --

JONES: Did Kennedy not fit this description of celebrity president?

DEAN: I would have thought that too, but it was just a different ecosystem.

SWISHER: No, no.

JONES: I could throw out an example here that --

FROST: He was young. He was handsome. And it was very carefully curated image of the Kennedy family that went back to his father being ambassador. Like, they knew how to work media. But he was not necessarily a celebrity. Going into office they made him a celebrity in the process.

SWISHER: Maybe Reagan a little bit, but he was a governor. You know, they had he had experience.

DEAN: OK, well, buckle your seatbelts for this one. Sex toys, sexism, and women's basketball. We are finally learning who started the trend of throwing dildos onto the court. We're going to go there. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:48:46]

DEAN: Didn't have this one on the 2020 bingo card. The WNBA is cracking down on dildos being thrown onto the court during games. The sex toys have shown up six different times, from Atlanta to L.A., posing a risk to players.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNNE ROBERTS, COACH, LOS ANGELES SPARKS: It's ridiculous. It's dumb, it's stupid. It's also dangerous. And you know, player safety is number one. Respecting the game, all those things. I think it's really stupid.

Essentially

DEAN: So what is this? Who is responsible for starting this trend? Apparently a crypto meme group which calls them pranks. But those pranks have so far resulted in two arrests. And it raises the debate, is it a sexist stunt? Is it some sort of rite of passage that every league experiences something like this? What is going on? What is this?

JONES: I just want to make this point right fast. I've been watching sports for 40 years. I've been covering sports for 20 years. I don't recall this one happening before. I just want to throw the idea like, oh, is this just something that goes on in sports? Yes. Toss the dildo on the floor is not a tradition that I recall going back to Indiana or any other place where they played basketball. This is -- I don't -- I'm not inclined to believe there's anything ideological behind it. I think it is sexist in the sense that you could get away with doing this to women, right. But I don't think that this is fueled necessarily by that.

[10:50:04]

I think this is stupid people who have found something goofy that they could do, and now we've got a problem because it's such a story and it's stuff that were not really in a position to do. The only thing that will make it stop, which is act like we don't see it.

ALLISON: I also think the people who are doing this, they are not fans of the WNBA. You would not disrespect a player like that and disrupt their game if you were actually there to root them on and to win. I think it's not just sexist. I think it's homophobic too, quite honestly.

SWISHER: One of the things is -- here's a lesbian talking about dildo. OK.

DEAN: An Saturday morning.

SWISHER: On a Saturday morning. Look, I've been to a lot of WNBA games. I'm not a big -- I'm the lesbian who doesn't like sports that much in America. But I've been there, and they're growing like a business, like crazy. They're really doing well. And the owners are really interesting, like Clara Wu and others. There's so many amazing people involved in it now that I think there's, for some reason, to slow it down. I feel like to slow down the momentum here and to make jokes with them is part of it, like to shame or something like that. And of course, like you said, they're just toddler men that just think throwing a dildo is hysterical. FROST: It's a stunt. And now we're getting to the point to where,

like, they're betting on the color of the objects. I'm not going to say the other word because my nana is watching this. But yes, I mean, they're now taking bets on what color is going to be thrown on the court.

ALLISON: And Donald Trump Jr. posted to Instagram, did you see this, with the president? I mean, obviously it's mean, but it's the president throwing one off the White House roof there onto the WNBA.

SWISHER: Well, that says everything we need to know about Donald Trump Jr. What is he, in his 50s? What is he?

ALLISON: Donald Trump posted that?

FROST: Donald Trump Jr.

SWISHER: Yes, yes 52 whatever. How old he is.

ALLISON: No comment.

DEAN: Toddler men, is that the word you used?

FROST: Those means that came from President Trump going on the roof, by the way, there was so many memes that came out of that. Like just standing up there with his hands. I've seen that picture, I think, on X probably 50 times with every different kind of caption.

JONES: But I saw the way your eyes rolled and looking at the women that were at the dais after the game. For those women, it seems like just such another eyeroll. Stupid boys and the things that stupid boys do, right? Like this is like getting into the is it a safety risk? Yes, but that's not why we're talking about this. It's just so improbably stupid.

ALLISON: And it's like we just have to keep enduring it, and suck it up and be better.

DEAN: Another thing that we have to be better about, listen.

SWISHER: I think we should patrol the stands and get one when they throw it and then hit them with it.

JONES: Well, some --

FROST: Like they're trying to crack down and say, you can't bring it back that --

JONES: Somebody got arrested at a game because it didn't make it to the court, because that's been my thought, is that the safest place for those things to land is on the court, because you had an actual person there's probably going to be a fight. But they hit a nine-year- old, apparently with this. But these are the steps that make it stop. But in the Internet era, you don't have the option of not putting the streaker on TV because somebody has got a phone with a camera out and then it keeps going. The key to this is how do you not pay attention to it while also treating it like it has some measure of importance? And I don't have the answer.

SWISHER: You haven't seen a streaker in long time, have you?

ALLISON: These athletes deserve so much better. They deserve so much better. And if you haven't been to a WNBA game, you should go, and you would learn how to respect them, because they can ball.

DEAN: They're having an incredible, I mean, it's incredible what's going on right now.

Up next, the panel's unpopular opinions, what they're not afraid to say out loud.

But first, a programing note. This Sunday, David Culver gives a rare glimpse into the drug trafficking rings rattling Ecuador where the weight of the global cocaine trade has a human cost. It's "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper". It's Sunday at 9:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:58:14]

DEAN: And we're back. It's time for your unpopular opinions. Everybody has 30 seconds to tell us yours. Ashley, go.

ALLISON: OK, so I was at the last night of the Beyonce concert with Jay-Z and Destiny's Child, and I'm just going to say, I think we should forgo act three in place of Destiny's Child album.

DEAN: OK.

ALLISON: Fight me. I'll take it.

DEAN: You know what? Somebody on the Internet might have something to say about that.

ALLISON: I mean, and all my millennial chicks, we will fight back.

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: All right, Katie?

FROST: My unpopular opinion is we need to slow down the seasons. Halloween is starting way too early. Pumpkin spice lattes are coming back on August 26th. I don't want to be drinking a fall hot beverage when it's 90 degrees outside. I don't want massive Halloween blowups in my neighborhood for over two months. The whole place looks like a cobweb covered graveyard for two months. We need to slow our role.

SWISHER: Do not come to my house, then.

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: Bomani? JONES: All right, sometimes it is not about the Zoomers that are in many cases some of you guys' children. The Vegas drop of traffic 11 percent and the argument being made is because Zoomers don't like Vegas. If you don't like Vegas, you weren't go in last year either. Therefore, you are not part of the 11 percent drop, now, are you? No, no, no, no, no. We've got all kinds of other issues, some of them involving the fact it was 110 degrees when I went there three weeks, some of them involving the fact that people just generally don't have money. But if you didn't go before, you're not the reason for the drop.

DEAN: That's true. And we end with Kara.

SWISHER: So my unpopular opinion has to do with "South Park" and the new owners of Paramount. A lot has been blamed on them, even though the previous administration had done all those, some of which were heinous deals. I'm really intrigued by what they're going to do, because I'm tired of the trope that media is dying. It's not. You have an amazing brand like that with all those great brands. You should be able to make a business out of it. I was very intrigued. I went to their launch with David Ellison, who is the new owner. He's put his own money in, and he is the son of Larry Ellison. But this is a lot of money, these investors, Gerry Cardinale and others are committing. So let's see what they can do. Like a lot of media, people are assuming the worst. I'm going to say they put a lot of money in, let's see what they can do, and the media doesn't have to be dead if you're innovative.

DEAN: Let's hope that's true, media not dead if we're innovative.

Everyone, thank you so much for being here. Great to spend Saturday morning with all of you. And thank you for watching "TABLE FOR FIVE". I'm going to be on later this afternoon for CNN Newsroom. In the meantime, CNN's coverage continues right now.