CNN reporter stomps lizard on live TV

A slimy lizard in West Palm Beach apparently wasn’t too happy with the way CNN was covering the release of the Mueller Report — and no, that isn’t a commentary on the president.

CNN White House Correspondent Abby D. Phillip was reporting from near Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night when she suddenly started squirming and kicking at the ground as a panelist in another box tried to make a point.

“Hold on, Abby … what was that,” host Chris Cuomo asked.

“That was a lizard climbing on me,” Phillip responded with a laugh.

“Abby, did you just stomp out a lizard on live television?” Cuomo pressed. “Is that lizard OK?”

“I don’t think it’s OK,” Phillip said. “But I’m fine.”

If you’re indeed worried about the reptile, CNN’s producer on the scene Betsy Klein reported this morning that “the lizard is fine, it slithered off unscathed.”

But these are the hazards of reporting live from South Florida.

Of course CNN’s crew is down here to cover President Donald Trump, who arrived at his Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday night hours after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The investigation neither charged Trump with obstruction nor exonerated him.

We’ll leave the analysis of that to another space. As for Phillip, she shared a clip of the lizard incident on her Twitter page Friday morning, commenting: “Literally my nightmare just happened on live tv, nbd.” (NBD meaning “no big deal.”)

Her final word on the TV clip is one we South Floridians should remember anytime something goes wrong in our swampy environs.

“At least it wasn’t an alligator.”