Miya Ponsetto, the 22-year-old woman dubbed “SoHo Karen” after falsely accusing a 14-year-old Black teen of stealing her phone and physically assaulting him in a hotel lobby, was “forcibly arrested” Thursday night after refusing to get out of her car and trying to slam the door shut on a deputy officer. But it’s this groan-inducing interview Ponsetto gave to CBS This Morning’s Gayle King that has everyone talking today.
If you haven’t been following the story, Ponsetto’s phone was actually sitting behind the front desk. She had left in in her Uber, and the driver had handed it over to hotel staff. She freaked out, screaming at the teen and attempting to tackle him. He suffered minimal scratches to his hands.
The boy’s father recorded this video leading up to the moment she got physical:
In an interview with Gayle King that aired Friday morning, Ponsetto, appearing alongside her attorney in a hat reading “Daddy,” attempted to justify her behavior, doing herself exactly zero favors by using “I’m a 22-year-old girl” as some sort of attempted defense.
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King remains cool as Ponsetto grows more irritated (and irritating). As one commenter aptly put it, King acts more as a therapist than an interviewer, trying to get Ponsetto to recognize she behaved poooly. Ponsetto shows no remorse aside from admitting she “could have approached the situation differently,” and gets so upset that she shuts down King at one point. “Alright Gayle, enough,” she says, putting her hand out. Ponsetto’s lawyer, who does nothing but sit there while her client digs herself deeper into a hole, finally tries to get her on track, muttering, “stop it” under her breath. That’s where the interview ends.
The interview trended on Twitter shortly after it aired. You can see it, as well as what people are saying about that final moment, below:
The 22-year-old woman caught on camera allegedly physically attacking a 14-year-old Black teen and falsely accusing him of stealing her phone was arrested in California.
In an exclusive interview, Miya Ponsetto and her lawyer spoke with @GayleKing hours before she was arrested. pic.twitter.com/ezaGkcWZ8j
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 8, 2021
“I’m a 22 year old girl” “alright Gayle, enough” please pay attention to how they infantilize themselves and then speak to Black adults as if they’re children. https://t.co/2UqdTyk6sz
— 5hahem (@shaTIRED) January 8, 2021
Lmaooo. You do this to most black women and you'll get your soul slapped out of you. She's lucky there's a computer screen in between (and that Gayle King is a saint) https://t.co/yprmQVoC6o
— Antonia Hylton (@ahylton26) January 8, 2021
as Gayle's former assistant, i can say her levels of patience and grace (especially considering that she doesn't drink lol) boggle my mind to this day. https://t.co/SAv4TNdZ9z
— Arianna Davis (@ariannagdavis) January 8, 2021
the soundcheck guy for Gayle King's interview with Miya Ponsetto pic.twitter.com/7NP7U5N1yI
— ??? ?????? (@TimBarnes451) January 8, 2021
This is the most disastrous interview I’ve ever seen in my life. The sheer patience of Gayle King here is remarkable. I don’t know why Miya Ponsetto’s lawyer didn’t step in and end this disaster. pic.twitter.com/P2XHiuBlLQ
— Charlotte Clymer ???? (@cmclymer) January 8, 2021
Notice how Miya Ponsetto…
– can’t even say “Black”
– feels completely comfortable being downright disrespectful to Gayle King
– professes to be too innocent to be racist
– is indignant about having done no wrongThis IS racism in action. https://t.co/UQk713rgci
— Adrienne Lawrence (@AdrienneLaw) January 8, 2021
I just imagined speaking to any elder the way Ms. Daddy Hat spoke to Gayle King and I nearly blacked out from the stress
— Anne Branigin ? (@AnneBranigin) January 8, 2021
Roy Ajax
IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH: Known dumb woman says dumb things. Let’s see what Twitter Twats have to say about it!
Cam
Awwww, the right wing troll is even jumping into this thread to deflect from the fact that a black kid was attacked by this crazy person.
Are you paid for each bigot you defend by Putin or is it an hourly thing?
WSnyder
Entitlement be thy Name
Kenny C
She pulled one of systemic racisms most successful tricks…. “I am 22 year girl.”…..”I thought that guy had my phone.” He was 14. Its sad that Black kids have to be taught, youth will never be an excuse. You will never be given grace for being a child. And for black boys, the moment you are reach a height that may be deemed threatening, you will be seen as a man and punished accordingly. That’s why 12 year old Tamir Rice was gun downed in a park for playing with a toy gun. He was tall.
andrew.agee
You had me right up to Tamir Rice. The toy gun he had in his hand comes with an orange tab the fits over the business end of the gun, precisely to keep anyone from mistaking it for the real weapon it is otherwise an EXACT copy of.
Rice had deliberately REMOVED the orange tab and was continually pointing it at bystanders, clearly for his own amusement.
His OWN BEHAVIOR is what prompted the call to 911. The caller said it was ” most likely a toy” but cops didn’t know that, nor could the caller tell anyone how they could determine the difference between a “real” gun and a toy.
When cops roll up on you, in a marked police car, jump out, announce themselves and command you to “drop the gun'” and you make the choice not to? You had your chance. While there is no audio on the video, cops dont roll up and draw their guns to ask where the best place is to get tacos.
Police never “shoot to wound,” If the threat merits you to draw your weapon, to defend yourself from an imminent danger, to yourself or others, you shoot to kill.
They had no way to know if the gun was a toy
They told him to drop what looked like a real gun.
He made the decision not to.
The police perceived this as an imminent danger.
When your, or other lives depend on your decision-making, had the gun in fact been real and Rice shot anybody, the same people who blamed them for shooting Rice, would immediately blame them for not.
armandov
While this woman was clearly an idiot and should face consequences for assaulting a teen, it had nothing to do with him being black. No hate crime charges were filed. This type of knee jerk reaction that everything is racist is messed up
8millionandcounting
She and her lawyer deserve each other.
My grandfather gave me this sage advice. Stop Digging. It would serve her well to shut her trap but I suspect she finally has her 15minutes she so desperately craved.
She is unhinged, lives in some alternate universe and is colossally stupid.
tjack47
When she did her hand like that, “enough”? I’m glad I wasn’t interviewing her in person. I might have made failed attempts to jump through the screen. That was disrespectful to anyone. 22 and wants to be grown up in NYC, but when it serves her purpose, she pulls that baby talk stuff. That’s one thing about it. You know she’d say she was a feminist, but a true feminist would put her in her place to her face. I can scarcely imagine how mortified I’d be being falsely accused. If I were a young teen, I would’ve found it traumatic.
jsmu
Dripping syphilitic KKKKKKKKKKKKunt. Normal life in dRUMPf’s amurriKKKa.
James
No apology, no regret. This entitled hag needs to be locked up for a couple of years. This is not her first time in trouble with the police either. Her attitude is rotten. She will not go far in life.
paul dorian lord fredine
i’m pretty sure she’ll find a ‘daddy’ to take care off her, she’s already advertising with that cap.
marshal phillips
She never really explained WHY she thought the kid had her phone?
richardNobbs
I think she was in a panic and from this interview a little nuts.
The kid and his father just got off the elevator so when would the theft have happened? At the Arlo like many other hotels the elevators only lets you off on certain floors, so when did she find that her phone was missing? It seems the first time she saw them was in the lobby. I think it’s clear what triggered her.
No matter what one’s thinking putting your hands on anyone, esp. a child, is out of the question.
Openminded
I believe the only answer to your question if because he was a young black man. She will never say that outloud, but there is no other explanation. I always try to look for a bit of good in people and try to figure out what might cause them to believe stupid actions on their part may seem “logical” in their mind at the moment. At first report, I thought she may have been overly excited about the loss of her prized phone and she had seen this kid in the vacinity of where she last had the phone. (God knows people can live up to 4 days without food or water, but only survive a few hours without their phone). Later reports revealed that this young man was not the first person she confronted about the phone, which means she had NO IDEA of where she last had the phone or who may have taken it. I’m a white guy who hates to see the race card played, but IMO, this is a classic case of racist “the black kid had to take the goods”. This bit*h needs to be treated for 3 problems. 1st, her racism, 2nd, her insecurity of living without a phone, 3rd, her inability to recognize and admit her physically harming behavior. Anyone with an ounce of dignity would have immediately begged for forgiveness once they were made aware of the fact that it was THEM who left their phone in the Uber. When Karma bites this girl, she just might not survive.
James
No apology, no regret. This entitled immature “person” needs to be locked up for a couple of years. This is not her first time in trouble with the police either. Her attitude is rotten. She will not go far in life.
ptseti
ENOUGH??????? Really… ENOUGH?????? SMH…. Thank god I wasn’t doing the interview
fur_hunter
I have poster 2 comments on here regarding this article and Queerty has not allowed either one to be posted. They have done this to all my comments I have posted over the last several months.
Kevan1
I am twenty two and assaulted a 14 year old kid who did anything to me, Feel sorry for me. boo hop! Buy the way my sugar daddy gave me the hat. I am his sugar baby after all.
ScottOnEarth
This woman is clearly unbalanced. She makes no sense and then has the NERVE to shush Gayle King, who is infinitely smarter than this nitwit. Wow. She has a miserable road ahead if she can’t even acknowledge that there is clear video of her tackling a 14-year-old child and being blatantly racist. What a loser and I commend Gayle for her usual grace.
Tombear
This bitch is a Trump supporter. Figures!
Dr Sarah
“I’m a 22-year-old girl”
Well, there’s your problem; by 22, you’re expected to have become an adult.
trojanboy
Lock her up. It would be kind to society. A zoo would be good.
yaletownman
By 22 we are adults. An adult is someone that is responsible enough to control their own reactions and behavior and at the very least be capable of reflecting on their behavior and taking ownership of it.
Adulthood is the ultimate goal of childhood the training period we humans go through to reach this goal. This is also the period we are taught that we are all equal and should treat others and ourselves accordingly.
She obviously did not receive these lessons. Maybe she will eventually reflect back on all of this and somehow see that she needs to take these classes now. Problem is that it’s hard difficult to re-train an ill trained ego into an adult one.
Kangol2
This childish, narcissistic, violent witch already has several arrests for criminal behavior, so she’s clearly a troublemaker and loose cannon. She assaulted a 14-year-old child and his father over a phone that her stupid @ss left in an Uber, and targeted the child in particular because he was Black (though she had tried to blame someone else earlier, but did not violently assault them). She needs to spend some time behind bars, where she might learn that actions have consequences, and immediate psychological help, because she seems barely coherent. The child’s parents, both acclaimed musicians, should sue her and the Arlo Hotel, which aided her crazed behavior.
s b
Super sweet? Try super psychotic.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
The fact that her lawyer sat there saying nothing sounds to me as though that attorney herself had had enough of her and decided to let her hang herself. The attorney was smart because she knew if the little imbecile gave a bad performance she was going to need the services of her attorney which come with a fee. You go figure.
Dunnedin
I’m sorry but I tell my students, many who are under 18, that they are not “children” but “young adults”. And this woman who is 22 is claiming she is a “girl”? 99.9% of 22yo women I know would be quite angry and incensed if I referred to (or thought of ) them as “girls” not “women”, fully adults.