‘The Dem bench is thinner than Chris Wallace’s demo reel’: Gutfeld launches repeated digs at former colleague

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The abrupt collapse of CNN+ has spawned two distinct responses: Endless laughter from CNN’s many haters, including Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld and former President Donald Trump, and furious outrage from outgoing CNN+ staffers and their allies.

Shortly after news broke Thursday that CNN will be shuttering CNN+ at the end of the month, the former president released a statement of sarcastic “congratulations.”

“Congratulations to CNN+ on their decision to immediately FOLD for a lack of ratings, or viewers in any way, shape, or form,” he mockingly said.

“It was like an empty desert out there despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars and the hiring of low-rated Chris Wallace, a man who tried so hard to be his father, Mike, but lacked the talent and whatever else is necessary to be a star. In any event, it’s just one more piece of CNN and Fake News that we don’t have to bother with anymore!” Trump added.

Look:

Later Thursday afternoon on Fox News’ “The Five,” Gutfeld repeatedly made fun of both CNN+ and his former colleague Chris Wallace, who left Fox News late last year in the apparent hopes of making it big at CNN/CNN+.

“The Democratic bench is thinner than Chris Wallace’s demo reel from CNN Plus,” he said at one point.

During a segment about New York City crime and its relation to the Black Lives Matter movement, Gutfeld said, “BLM has done to black people what Chris Wallace has done to CNN+. Entice them with a promise and then ditch them on the side of the road.”

During a segment on climate change, he said, “A lot of these solutions that are coming from the left are unreliable, whether it’s solar panels or windmills. I mean look at CNN+, how much money they invested in wind power by hiring Chris Wallace.”

And then during the show’s final segment, he played a video of a wild buffalo walking the streets and said, “I just looked out at Sixth Avenue and who did I see just hanging out in front of a tavern? None other than, guess… Chris Wallace!”

But CNN+’s collapse is no laughing matter for the roughly 300 staffers who left their cozy gigs at CNN for the chance to excel at CNN+, only to see the rug pulled from underneath them.

“Many people left their stable jobs at CNN to go to CNN+ and then they pull it right after launch? Everyone is aghast and furious,” one source within the company explained to the New York Post for a report published Thursday.

Though CNN has reportedly vowed to try to provide each outgoing CNN+ staffer with “first dibs” on open gigs at CNN, not everybody is expected to make it.

“The big people will likely be saved, but what about everybody else, the people who do the real work? The producers, showrunners? Some will get six months’ severance, others will not,” the Post’s source complained.

Among the big names likely to be “saved” is Wallace.

“With CNN+ shutting down, the prevailing sentiment in the newsroom is that Wallace will likely take over Chris Cuomo’s old 9 p.m. time slot,” according to the Post.

Of course, given how poorly he’d fared at CNN+ (not to mention at Fox News), it’s not clear that he’ll find any success at CNN:

Kasie Hunt, formerly of MSNBC, is likely also to be “saved.” To her credit, she’s vowed to help her outgoing colleagues find work elsewhere.

Look:

Wallace has, for his part, made no such public vow …

Meanwhile on Twitter, one outgoing CNN+ producer is being slammed for asking for kindness from those mocking the network.

At issue, critics say, is that she works for a network that wouldn’t know kindness if it were slapped by it.

Look:

Vivek Saxena

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