The panelists on Friday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day program took advantage of their last chance of the week to slam their favorite target -- Donald Trump -- even going so far as to give former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart a chance to try to hammer the final nails into the Republican president’s coffin.
Lockhart, who served in Democratic President Bill Clinton’s administration for two years, took obvious delight in casting Trump’s troubles in the darkest light possible by questioning if the president was ever legitimately elected.
Of course, the analyst began by stating that “we sometimes lose perspective” on this topic before claiming that “the largest perspective is a case has been built this week” that the Republican Commander-In-Chief does not deserve to occupy the White House.
He continued:
If you look at the Russia stuff and the campaign finance stuff and the fact that 40,000 votes going the other way over three states, we now don’t know, and that’s why this is important.
It’s not the campaign finance. It’s not did they have a meeting at Trump Tower with some Russians? It’s “Was he legitimately elected?” And that’s what we’re all going to have to square at the end of this.
Next up was New Day co-host John Berman, who agreed with Lockhart but claimed that his fellow panelist hadn’t gone far enough.
“[Y]ou don't even have to get to that point, you don’t even have to get to the political point to look at this and say it's a legal mess,” Berman added.
He then slammed Michael Cohen as Trump’s ex-lawyer for his involvement in the president’s legal problems.
Berman asserted that Cohen “says many different things and has said many different things,” leading the CNN co-host to conclude that the attorney is “a terrible witness.”
“He has lied about everything and everyone over time,” the liberal host asserted. “He claims he just signed the documents there but clearly was a key player in all the things here.”
The discourse began when former Republican and current CNN global affairs analyst Max Boot tangled with New Day co-host Alisyn Camerota about what to do with a “hypocrisy flag” in this situation.
Boot stated: “Some of the very same people who are saying it's a technical FEC violation” and “not a big deal” are the same individuals who claimed that former presidential candidate John Edwards ”ought to have been locked up on a similar type of case.”
The panelist was referring to 2008, when it was revealed that Edwards had had an extramarital affair and fathered a child while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer. That disclosure ended his career in politics.
“So this is not a unique prosecution if they are going to go after the president,” Boot added.
Camerota responded: “I can do one better on the hypocrisy flag.”
She then referred to outgoing Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who stated during an unplanned hallway interview earlier this week: “Who cares? I don’t care about things like this” regarding the accusations now being made against Trump.
“I remember they did care when there was philandering from the president in the past,” Camerota added.
Not long after the CNN co-host made those remarks, Hatch released a statement in which he regretted “speaking imprudently” even though he doesn’t believe “the President broke the law” and instead noted that Trump “has succeeded in a number of important policy areas.”
