Appearing as a guest on Friday's New Day, the morning after declaring that Republicans are "detached from rational" thought on Hillary Clinton, CNN political commentator Errol Louis continued inoculating Clinton from charges of malfeasance in the email scandal as he charged that, "in the kangaroo courts of right-wing talk radio, for Donald Trump, for the Republican party," a clean report from the FBI would not change their views on the issue because "they have already convicted her." He then predicted that their "talking points" would not change.
At 6:17 a.m. ET, substitute co-host John Berman introduced a segment on the issue suggesting Clinton would be exonerated:
All right, there is word that the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails is nearly complete. She is due to be interviewed in the coming weeks. As of now, CNN has been told by U.S. officials that there is no evidence Hillary Clinton willfully broke the law.
After playing a clip of Donald Trump suggesting Clinton might be allowed to evade prosecution, Berman sarcastically followed up:
So let's dissect that a little bit, Jackie. If the FBI investigation wraps up and there are no charges, does that mean, I ask facetiously, that we will never hear of this again from the Republican party? Does this issue just go away?
After Jackie Kucinich of the Daily Beast predicted that exoneration of Clinton would lead to accusations that the investigation was "rigged," co-host Alisyn Camerota turned to Louis and posed:
Yeah, but, Errol, it loses some of its punch if, in fact, the FBI publicly comes out and says "we found no indication that she willfully broke the law" because some people -- as you know, Errol -- had feared this would be this never-ending fishing expedition throughout the entire election, and it would always be hanging out there, so something definitive would help.
Louis -- political anchor of Time Warner Cable News -- hinted that critics of Clinton would not be swayed by "facts" as he began:
Well, that's right, for the Clinton team, this is good news, the notion that they'll actually get past it. For genuinely undecided voters who are open to facts, this is also probably good to sort of let them have some information that they can make a decision based on.
He then took aim at conservative talk radio and Republicans generally as he added:
But, in the kangaroo courts of right-wing talk radio, for Donald Trump, for the Republican party, I don't think this makes any difference whatsoever. They have already convicted her. They have already decided that she has done something criminal. And I don't think their talking points are going to change one bit, based on whatever facts come out of it.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, May 6, New Day on CNN:
6:17 a.m. ET
JOHN BERMAN; All right, there is word that the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails is nearly complete. She is due to be interviewed in the coming weeks. As of now, CNN has been told by U.S. officials that there is no evidence Hillary Clinton willfully broke the law. ... Jackie, let me play you what Donald Trump said about the email story to our Wolf Blitzer just this week.
DONALD TRUMP, GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Here's a person under investigation by the FBI. She's only going to get the nomination because its a rigged deal. And, frankly, maybe she won't even be able to run. Now, I think she probably will because I think the Democrats will work it so that nothing happens to her even though everything happened to other people that did far less.
BERMAN: So let's dissect that a little bit, Jackie. If the FBI investigation wraps up and there are no charges, does that mean, I ask facetiously, that we will never hear of this again from the Republican party? Does this issue just go away?
JACKIE KUCINICH, DAILY BEAST: It's hard to believe that that would happen. I mean, listen to Donald Trump. This plays into the message that he's been using all along, which is "The system is rigged, and this would not happen to a normal person, or a normal person would not get off," so I think you'll hear various versions of that as we go through that saying, "Okay, yeah, so they cleared Hillary Clinton, well, that's because the system is rigged."
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Yeah, but, Errol, it loses some of its punch if, in fact, the FBI publicly comes out and says "we found no indication that she willfully broke the law" because some people -- as you know, Errol -- had feared this would be this never-ending fishing expedition throughout the entire election, and it would always be hanging out there, so something definitive would help.
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's right, for the Clinton team, this is good news, the notion that they'll actually get past it. For genuinely undecided voters who are open to facts, this is also probably good to sort of let them have some information that they can make a decision based on.
But, in the kangaroo courts of right-wing talk radio, for Donald Trump, for the Republican party, I don't think this makes any difference whatsoever. They have already convicted her. They have already decided that she has done something criminal. And I don't think their talking points are going to change one bit, based on whatever facts come out of it.
