“It was an interesting afternoon,” Gayle King said of her interview with Miya Ponsetto, conducted on Thursday just hours before the 22-year-old was arrested in Los Angeles. Ponsetto became known as the “Soho Karen” after she appeared to physically assault a 14-year-old Black teen she had falsely accused of stealing her iPhone. While the CBS News interview was framed as an opportunity for the woman to explain herself, the now-viral video only made the unremorseful Ponsetto into more of a villain.
She certainly didn’t do herself any favors by snapping at King, essentially telling her to shut it midway through their interview. When the newscaster pressed Ponsetto to take responsibility for her actions, noting, “You are old enough to know better,” the 22-year-old abruptly cut her off. “Alright, Gayle! Enough,” Ponsetto snapped, making a zip-it gesture at the woman who once absorbed R. Kelly’s ravings with placid calm.
Ever the consummate professional, King joked with her CBS News co-anchors afterwards that the “enough” moment was her favorite part of the interview. She also noted that Ponsetto didn’t do much to help her own cause, including ignoring her lawyer’s advice to remove a baseball cap with “Daddy” written on it. “It’s a very sad story, though,” King added. “I think there’s something sad about her and... the trauma that she put this 14-year-old teenager through. That’s not OK.”
Other unbelievable moments from King’s interview with Ponsetto are making the rounds on social media, including an 11-second clip where she flails while trying to claim she’s not racist. For all the shenanigans, King did her best to get to the root of Ponsetto’s actions. “Miya, help me understand,” she implores. “What made you think that Keyon [Harrold Jr.] had your phone? That’s why I’m confused. Why did you think he had it?”
“I was approaching the people that had been exiting the hotel, because in my mind, anybody exiting is probably ... the one that is trying to steal my phone,” Ponsetto replied. King asked whether she interrogated “everybody in the lobby” when she thought her phone had been taken. “Um, not everyone,” Ponsetto said.
Surveillance footage from New York City’s Arlo Hotel appears to show Ponsetto grabbing and tackling Harrold Jr. in the lobby entrance. Separate viral video recorded by the teen’s father, jazz musician Keyon Harrold, depicts Ponsetto screaming at and chasing them as they repeatedly explain her phone isn’t in their possession. On Thursday afternoon, police in L.A. had to forcefully pull Ponsetto from her car while taking her into custody.
One thing’s certain: King left us with a whopper of a cliffhanger for the second part of her Ponsetto interview, which is slated to air on Monday.
