'Curse words?' CNN host scolds senator over 'bad language' on social media

CNN's Brianna Keilar put Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) on the spot Wednesday over her word choice while posting on social media.

The scolding revolved around Smith's social media response to Elon Musk's infamous email to federal workers asking them to list five things they accomplished during the week.

"I want to say to people, there's a bad language-curse word-expletive alert here," Keilar began, before reading the post.

"You said, 'This is the ultimate d--- boss move from Musk, except he isn't even the boss, he's just a d---.' And then you follow that up with, 'I'm on the side of the workers, not the billionaire a--h--- bosses.'"

Keilar told the senator that voters "want more" from the Democratic Party.

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"They want to see you opposing Trump in a more fulsome way. So, I ask you this sincerely: Do you, like, what's the value in that kind of language and communication? Is that the best way to communicate the stakes of the moment that the country is in?"

"Well, what I am hearing from voters at home and what I heard on your show, is that people want to see some fight," Smith said. "They want to see some urgency in this moment that we're in. And I think with that tweet that I did, it touched a nerve with millions of people. Because everybody has had the experience of having some boss who treats them with disrespect, who denigrates their work and is just basically using big power play moves to terrorize them."

Smith mentioned Elon Musk's post calling Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) "a traitor" for siding with Ukraine.

"Let me play a little devil's advocate on that," Keilar said. "And it was ridiculous that Elon Musk called him, of all people, a traitor. That wasn't a four-letter word that he used — what Elon Musk said to him — and it got a lot of attention. I mean, isn't there a way to mirror what your constituents — the outrage they're feeling — maybe even in a bigger way than using like, the limited vocabulary of curse words? Because there's a lot of great words out there that can communicate a lot."

Smith declined to apologize for her word choice.

"I would just say that In that moment, that's what I thought, and obviously, it struck a nerve."

Watch the clip below via CNN.