MAGA-coded CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has hired a British broadcaster who outed himself as an apologist for a self-described “best pal” of Jeffrey Epstein.
Weiss, whose hiring spree has triggered one crisis after another at the network, has poached Sir Trevor Phillips, the host of Sky News’ Sunday Mornings, Breaker reports.
Phillips, 72, will join CBS News as Senior Global Affairs Correspondent, people familiar with the situation told the outlet.
But Weiss, 42, may have bought herself another headache with her latest hire. Phillips arrives at CBS with controversy in tow, thanks to eyebrow-raising comments he made about Peter Mandelson, a onetime friend of Epstein’s.
Phillips told The Brink podcast in February that he remains friends with Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the U.S., despite his links to Epstein, the sex trafficking pedophile.
Arguing that nobody is “perfect,” Phillips said he had “absolutely no time” for people who had deserted Mandelson after the U.S. Justice Department’s Epstein files dump revealed he had corresponded closely with Epstein years after the pedophile’s conviction for soliciting a child for sex.
“If you choose somebody to be your friend, you are taking all of their weaknesses. Those of us who were and are Peter’s friend, know about his weaknesses,” said Phillips, who is also a columnist for The Times of London.
“I am not going to pretend that all of the good things I saw in Peter Mandelson for five decades have suddenly become nugatory,” he continued. “What would that say about me as a person if I suddenly decided to unperson somebody because of what I discovered about them?”
Phillip’s comments came after the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into emails that appear to show Mandelson leaking sensitive government information to Epstein while serving as the U.K. business secretary in 2009 and 2010.
Phillips said that he was “absolutely not” surprised by the revelations about Mandelson and that he had not misjudged his character. Mandelson acted as best man at Phillips’ first wedding, according to The Telegraph.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t go into this in too much detail, but for those of us who have been close to Peter Mandelson for a long time, there is no secret about his attraction to a certain kind of life—lifestyle, his predilection for a certain sort of social circle,” he said.
CBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to his questionable relationships, Phillips has found himself embroiled in controversy in the past, with much of it stemming from allegations of Islamophobia dating back years.
Phillips was suspended from the Labour Party in 2020 pending an investigation into comments about Pakistani Muslim men sexually abusing children, as well as criticisms leveled at some Muslims for not wearing poppies for Remembrance Sunday.
His suspension was later lifted in 2021.
Phillips wouldn’t be the first of Weiss’ hires to bring Epstein-related baggage with them.
The former anti-woke opinion journalist, who was installed by Trump-friendly Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, hired Peter Attia, a so-called “wellness guru,” as one of CBS News’ new “star” contributors in January.
But the DOJ’s Epstein files dump included nearly 2,000 references to Attia, including dozens of emails between Attia and Epstein showing the two men joking playfully about women, exchanging compliments, and alluding to a close friendship—years after the disgraced financier’s 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.
Amid a firestorm over his friendship with the late sex offender, Attia tendered his resignation less than four weeks after getting hired.
Weiss added to her growing list of hiring controversies this month, after firing 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon, and replacing her with Nick Bilton, a tech journalist with no TV experience who received a hostile welcome at his first staff meeting.
Longtime correspondent Scott Pelley confronted Bilton in front of other staff members, pressing him on the firings and telling the new boss that he would “never be welcome” at 60 Minutes.
The heated exchange reportedly earned Pelley applause from his colleagues, but Bilton and Weiss fired him a day later.
