CNN’s Chris Cuomo‘s conversation with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday took an odd but interesting detour when they veered from wall funding talk to the nature and qualities of Fox News host Sean Hannity. Not to mention his influence over Donald Trump, which Cuomo described as nearly total control.

Gaetz and Cuomo were discussing where the money for the wall would come from under Trump’s apparent plan to declare a national emergency, when Cuomo brought up Hannity.

Gaetz called the day’s events, including the deal, a win for Trump, saying that he pulled it off ‘without a lick of amnesty.”

“I don’t know why it’s a win for him,” said Cuomo. “Because he, back in the day — who knows where he is now that, you know, he’s got Hannity and [Ann] Coulter and all these people in his head all the time, rent free by the way–”

Gaetz reacted, saying “wow, throwing shade at Hannity.”

“No, look, Sean Hannity has been a friend to me and he is incredibly persuasive and powerful,” said Cuomo. Then he really got deep. “I would argue, he is without question the most powerful person in the media because what he says, the president does. Not vice versa.”

“What Hannity says the president does,” Cuomo repeated.

“We’ve never seen that before. What what he says the president does,” Cuomo said a third time as Gaetz was beginning to respond.

Gaetz argued that it is good that Trump takes advice and “bounces ideas off of a lot of different people,” but Cuomo was not done making his case for the power of Sean Hannity.

“We could go on all night, as a statement against interest, of how crazy it is that with all the expertise the president is privy too, that he chooses someone like me to listen to about major policy matters, is something that I could really scrutinize all night,” said Cuomo.

“Well I reject the premise that Hannity is someone like you,” said Gaetz, who moments earlier had referred to Hannity as a “transformational figure” in the media. “You’re very different.”

“We are different,” Cuomo agreed with a laugh that was not necessarily shared with Gaetz’s laugh. “But when it comes to what either of us knows about national policy and how to lead and how to govern, we’re both at zero. That’s why we’re on TV, and not in elected office.”

“And he knows it,” said Cuomo of Hannity, continuing the assessment. “He’d be in public service if he thought he could do it better than everybody else. He likes this life, and he’s loving his access. Good for him.”

Watch the odd side conversation above, courtesy of CNN.

[Featured image via screengrab]

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