Audie Cornish’s Cherry-Picked ‘Fasting’ Crisis Because 'the Economy Is S--t'

Audie Cornish is back at her cherry-picking antics. Yesterday, the CNN This Morning host managed to find two Texas Republicans who said they wouldn't vote for Ken Paxton in the Texas senatorial general election. 

Today, Audie began a segment on the economy by rolling clips of TikTok personalities claiming Americans are “skipping freaking meals” and fasting because “the economy is s--t.” She described them as “stories of Americans who say they’re struggling to put food on the table.”

One struggler was TikToker @ellestate, who, in a recent post, bragged about being able to afford expensive things to make herself “pretty.” The other struggler, @changegrower, recently posted a screaming, f-bomb laden, self-described "meltdown." This is CNN’s idea of economic commentary.

Citing a Federal Reserve report on rising "food insecurity," Cornish stated the obvious: food insecurity is more prevalent among poor people. Duh. Audie worked in a jab at Trump: "Once people stop having breakfast, when does it seem to the White House like a thing that is a concern?"

What Cornish left out is how loose and controversial the "food insecurity" term is. Many qualify without ever skipping a meal — just by worrying about food or choosing cheaper options. As someone who does almost all his grocery shopping at Walmart because it’s cheaper than other supermarkets, and often chooses generic “Great Value” items over pricier name brands, I guess that makes me “food insecure”—for liberal stats-padding purposes.

So, just like yesterday with the dissident Republicans, only voices fitting the liberal narrative made the cut today. Meanwhile, we’re in the Ozempic era, where millions shell out hundreds monthly to lose weight. Neither of the “fasters” in Cornish’s clips looked like they’d missed many meals lately.

Cornish then turned to Dr. Jill's CBS interview regarding the 2024 Biden-Trump debate. She played a bit of Biden’s rambling, and Trump’s killer retort: “I don’t think he knows what he said either.” But she completely ignored Biden’s disastrous moment — “We finally defeated Medicare” — the line that panicked Democrats and prompted calls for him to drop out.

In the interview, Jill said she was “frightened,” thought Biden was having a “stroke,” and had never seen him like that before or since. Republican strategist Mike Dubke called it a “crock,” noting that if she were that worried, why didn’t she check on him during the commercial break?

Cornish tried to soften it for Dr. Jill, claiming, “We’re not saying he had a stroke, we’re saying she thought maybe something was going on.” Wrong. Jill Biden’s verbatim quote from the CBS interview was: “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.'”

The segment wrapped with Democratic strategist Meghan Hays declaring it’s unfair for aging lawmakers “who aren’t going to live the next five years” to saddle younger generations with debt. A seemingly stunned Cornish responded: “I can’t top that.”

The segment was peak liberal media: hyping dubious food insecurity scares in the middle of an Ozempic boom, while running interference for the Bidens.

Note: Cornish kept her NPR-to-CNN pipeline humming, with NPR podcaster Tamara Keith on today's panel. Keith managed to find a "big Trump supporter" who is "fasting" to save money. 

Here's the transcript.

CNN This Morning
5/28/26
6:33 am EDT

TIKTOKER 1: You guys, I'm sorry to tell you this, but if you need to save money, statistically, like what, 50% of you could skip a meal. Yeah, I could skip a meal.

TIKTOKER 2: It's never been a better time to start fasting until right now, because the economy is shit and people are barely scraping by, living paycheck to paycheck. People are skipping freaking meals, dude. And then the rhetoric online is largely about elitism and privilege and just like -- Screw you, kind of like.

AUDIE CORNISH: All right, so these are just some of the stories of Americans who say they're struggling to put food on the table. According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the rise in food insecurity is especially remarkable among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children. 

. . . 

Just looking at the paper today, this says "My budget is just broken." At a certain point, once people stop, stop having breakfast, when does it seem to the White House like a thing that is a concern?

TAMARA KEITH: Yeah, I, I, you know, like I have been talking to these swing voters, as I said, one of them described having to think about, well, what am I gonna give up to fill my tank, because it's so much more expensive? 

CORNISH: I'm gonna put up gas prices while you're talking. 

KEITH: I spoke to another voter, a big Trump supporter, who really still believes that he's gonna figure it out with this war, he is fasting, and he's like, well, you know, there's health benefits, but it saves a lot of money.

And so, this is not abstract, this isn't a few people on social media, this is very real.

CORNISH: One of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this is because these-- this is part of the two-tier economy, and the Trump administration always comes out and talks about the tier that's doing well. Your stocks are doing great, your 401ks are doing great. Are you a boomer who already has wealth? Congrats, this is an amazing economy. Are you in the AI industry? Amazing economy. And then right there, it didn't take long to find those voices.

MIKE DUBKE: No, not at all. And this is, this is really about, choices that every American has to make at their, at their kitchen table, and right now because of high gas prices, they're making other choices about what they spend their limited capital on. So I am not surprised to see people skipping meals, and frankly, I'm, I am glad we're having this conversation about folks that aren't, that aren't, that fall through the cracks.

. . . 

CORNISH: Going back to when people made this decision that you're talking about for a change election, I'm gonna pick a point. The disastrous debate performance by President Biden in the summer of 2024.

JOE BIDEN: And I'm gonna continue to move until we get the total ban on the, the, the, the, the total initiative, relative to what we can do with more border patrol and more asylum officers.

DEBATE HOST: President Trump?

DONALD TRUMP: I, I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.

CORNISH: All right. So for most Americans, that was uncomfortable to watch. For former First Lady Jill Biden, she says it was terrifying. This is what she told CBS.

RITA BRAVER: Were you horrified as you saw it unfold?

JILL BIDEN: I wasn't horrified, I was frightened. Because I had never, ever, seen Joe like that before or since?

BRAVER: Never. Or since.

JILL BIDEN: Yes.

BRAVER: Or since. Never seen him like that. 

JILL BIDEN: Never, no.

BRAVER: What happened?

JILL BIDEN: I don't know what happened. I mean, when I, as I watched it, I thought, "Oh my God, he's having a stroke." And it scared me to death.

CORNISH: Okay, Group Chat is back. So here's the New York Post reaction. I'm gonna, move away from "Brain of Terror," which is very subtle, and go to, "But she didn't make him step down." I think this is the thing people are asking about, which is, if Jill Biden was so afraid for his health, should she have said something sooner, more publicly? Does this contribute to the narrative that they withheld this from the public?

. . . 

MEGHAN HAYS: But nobody thought that Joe Biden should run for another four years, except the people around him.

CORNISH: So, and we're talking about one of them. Trust me, as a spouse, if I see my spouse even like hiccup, I'm like, "Uh, shocked, worried, what's, what's happening?" So I totally can understand shock. 

DUBKE: I'm sorry, I'm sitting here, I'm eye-rolling, I'm doing everything, I, I don't think it's coming across. If my wife saw me having a stroke on stage, I kinda think she might come --

CORNISH: Well, we're not saying he had a stroke, we're saying she thought maybe something was going on.

DUBKE: No. [Quoting Dr. Jill] "I thought he was having a stroke." But you know what, I didn't care enough to actually go during commercial break and see. This is a crock!

KEITH: It was also a way of making it seem like a discreet moment instead of something that, oh --

CORNISH: No, no, let's underscore this point. She's trying to say this is a chat, this was a moment, yes, and underscoring that it hadn't happened since.

KEITH: So what she is saying there is, it didn't happen before, it hasn't happened since, it was a discreet moment in that debate. That's the case she's making. I don't know that it's credible, but that is the case she was making.

DUBKE: [Laughs.] No one thinks it's credible!

. . . 

HAYS: What are we doing? We need to have an honest conversation about age, and everybody has parents who have aged, and we all see what happens. And it is no appropriate for the voters. It's also not fair to our younger generations to saddle them with things like debt and all these other decisions that these lawmakers are making that aren't going to live the next five years.

CORNISH: I can't top that, okay, Meghan. Thank you.