News anchor explodes at pro-Trump colleague who mocks 'panic' over coronavirus: '100,000 people died, Joe!'

'All you did was try to help your friend the president'

The hosts of CNBC's "Squawk Box" had a fiery exchange during Wednesday morning's show, during which anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin accused his colleague Joe Kernen of "misusing and abusing" his position to help President Donald Trump.

Mr Kernen suggested that Mr Sorkin was overreacting to the coronavirus, while Mr Sorkin accused Mr Kernen of minimising the dangers of the virus for the benefit of Mr Trump.

"You panicked about the market, panicked about Covid, panicked about the ventilators, panicked about the PPE, panicked about ever going out again, panicked that we'd never get back to normal," Mr Kernen said during the exchange.

Mr Sorkin defended himself, pointing to the death toll as evidence the virus should not be shrugged off.

"You didn't panic about anything? Joseph, 100,000 people died. One hundred thousand people died, Joe, and all you did was try to help your friend the president," Mr Sorkin said. "Those are what you did, every single morning on this show, every single morning on this show. You have used and abused your position, Joe. You have used and abused your position."

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Mr Kernen defended himself, claiming he was "just trying to help investors keep their cool, keep their heads and as it turned out that's what they should have done."

He went on to claim that the country's markets would have tanked if Mr Sorkin had had his way, and contended that the US's death rate was on the lower end when compared to numerous other countries.

Mr Sorkin fired back that his concerns about the virus had nothing to do with the market, that they were rooted in concerns for people's lives.

"I wasn't arguing for you to go sell your stocks, Joseph, I was arguing about people's lives," Mr Sorkin said.

Mr Kernen said he agreed that it was "terrible" that 100,000 have already died from the virus, but maintained that a return to "normal" was inevitable.

"...Giving credence to all that panic didn't help any investors at all, or people with their anxiety," Mr Kernen said.