CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin explodes on co-host Joe Kernen: '100,000 people died and all you did was try and help your friend the president'

The co-hosts of CNBC's Squawk Box definitely had their coffee this morning.

On Wednesday's episode of the business news program, co-hosts Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Kernen went head to head over their longstanding perspectives on COVID-19's economic effects. Tensions ran hot as Kernen tried to spin the economy's status in a positive light, and the spat eventually peaked as Sorkin accused Kernen of ignoring the coronavirus' death toll to "try and help your friend the president."

Kernen and Sorkin's spat began as they discussed a market rally and what it meant for upcoming financial quarters. "Joe, you missed 100 percent on the way down and you missed 100,000 deaths," Sorkin declared. "Every morning, you try to question the questions that I'm asking," Sorkin continued, saying that being "right or wrong" on the markets "doesn't make people a good person or a bad person, and it doesn't make right to act the way you are."

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Things calmed down for a split second before Kernen got his take in: "You panicked about the market, panicked about COVID, panicked about the ventilators," trailing on until Sorkin jumped in. "Joseph, you didn't panic about anything. A hundred thousand people died and all you did was try to help your friend the president," Sorkin decisively finished. Watch the dust-up below. Kathryn Krawczyk