Talk about not letting things go. On Tuesday’s New Day, CNN co-hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman brought on chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin to spout Democratic talking points about the Russia collusion and the Ukraine abuse of power scandals. Despite that both accusations towards President Trump have been debunked, Toobin crazily claimed that Vladimir Putin has dirt on Trump and that Trump “Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice. It's quite clear. Worse than Bill Clinton. Worse than Richard Nixon.”
Camerota began the segment by hyping Toobin’s supposedly tell-all book about Trump’s alleged crimes:
Joining us now is Jeffrey Toobin, CNN chief legal analyst and author of the new book out today, True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump. Jeffrey, I can't wait to talk about your book.
Because CNN still obsesses over the Russia investigation, Berman focused the discussion on it. Toobin responded with a series of insane accusations towards Trump:
BERMAN: You know, this actually has a direct tie to your book, Jeffrey Toobin, because I learned in reading your book that the Mueller investigation never tried to get the President's tax returns. Never did get the President's tax returns. And that's something I had no idea. I think we had all assumed that the Mueller team had everything and decided to delve back into the President's long history with Russia. And in your book, in your meticulous research, I learned, no.
TOOBIN: Yeah, well, one of -- one of the striking things about the Mueller investigation is the degree to which he followed -- the -- Mueller -- the -- the -- the -- to the letter the jurisdiction that was given him by Rod Rosenstein when he was hired on May 17, 2017. You know, he did not look at the -- he did not look at the background of Trump's relationship with Russia. He looked at the campaign and he looked at the 2005 deal that Michael Cohen negotiated to build a tower in Moscow, but he never looked at what Donald Trump's historical relationship was with Russia. And the question that, you know, so many of us have asked for so long is, what is it about Russia that Donald Trump has been so solicitous of Vladimir Putin? What does Vladimir Putin have on him?
Ah yes, the Mueller investigation which stated that there was no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia. Oh and by the way, the top Obama officials who initiated the investigation all testified under oath that there was no collusion. Why is CNN so obsessed with a debunked narrative? The answer is that they want to undermine Trump with the election in November.
Toobin then criticized Mueller for not displaying enough “zeal” in the investigation and claimed that Trump obstructed justice “worse than” Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon:
I think, was -- was when they didn't display enough zeal. The story of how and why Trump's legal team was able to avoid a subpoena and managed to satisfy Mueller just by giving these very bland, uninformative, written answers to written questions, is really an extraordinary story of how Rudolph Giuliani, despite his bizarre behavior, was very clever in stretching that negotiation out so far that it actually created in the impression in Mueller's office that the legal fight would take too long. He did not -- you know, he could have pressed the issue earlier, and he didn't. And as for the report, you know, the -- the -- the -- we all remember the Office of Legal Counsel opinion that says the President can't be indicted while he's in office. But Mueller convinced himself that because of that, he couldn't say -- Mueller couldn't say whether the President actually committed a crime, because the President would never have his day in court to defend himself. But I thought that was a real abdication, especially when you look at the evidence of obstruction of justice that Mueller compiled in this meticulous, thorough, effective investigation. Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice. It's quite clear. Worse than Bill Clinton. Worse than Richard Nixon. Both of whom were -- for -- I mean Nixon was forced out of office, Clinton was impeached. The evidence was stronger against Trump. But Mueller pulled that punch, and I think it was -- it -- it -- it was a gift to Donald Trump.
The Democratic hack then moved onto the Ukraine investigation:
And one of the -- one of the things that I thought was one of the most important was that the Russia story and the Ukraine story were really one story. When you look at the issue of collusion and the desire to use foreign governments and foreign money and foreign power for Trump's personal and political advancement, it was exactly the same idea in -- with Russia and -- and with Ukraine. Same thing with obstruction of justice. When you do something you're embarrassed about, you lie about it and you obstructed justice. Same -- same in both.
CNN does not care about the facts for both these cases. It desires to smear Trump so that it can help its party win.
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Read the full August 4th transcript here:
CNN New Day
08/04/20
6:40 AM ET
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Developing this morning, prosecutors in New York telling a judge that their investigation of President Trump extends beyond the hush money payments to two women who allege affairs with Donald Trump. Joining us now is Jeffrey Toobin, CNN chief legal analyst and author of the new book out today, True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump. Jeffrey, I can't wait to talk about your book. But, first, let's talk about what prosecutors in New York are doing. So what clues do we have that this is well beyond the payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, two things. It's a wide-ranging financial investigation relating to tax matters, relating to fraud, and, of course, relating to the -- the -- the possibly unlawful campaign contributions with the -- with the two women. The other thing we know is that the prosecutors are going to get those documents. I mean the Supreme Court decision in that case was really quite clear. It may take a month, it may take two months, but they are going to get the financial records and the tax documents. The important point for the public to remember, though, is that this is a grand jury investigation, and those documents will not be released to the public until and unless there's a trial, and that would be probably at least a year away. So, you know, before the election, the public is not going to learn any of this stuff that people have been curious about for so long.JOHN BERMAN: You know, this actually has a direct tie to your book, Jeffrey Toobin, because I learned in reading your book that the Mueller investigation never tried to get the President's tax returns. Never did get the President's tax returns. And that's something I had no idea. I think we had all assumed that the Mueller team had everything and decided to delve back into the President's long history with Russia. And in your book, in your meticulous research, I learned, no.
TOOBIN: Yeah, well, one of -- one of the striking things about the Mueller investigation is the degree to which he followed -- the -- Mueller -- the -- the -- the -- to the letter the jurisdiction that was given him by Rod Rosenstein when he was hired on May 17, 2017. You know, he did not look at the -- he did not look at the background of Trump's relationship with Russia. He looked at the campaign and he looked at the 2005 deal that Michael Cohen negotiated to build a tower in Moscow, but he never looked at what Donald Trump's historical relationship was with Russia. And the question that, you know, so many of us have asked for so long is, what is it about Russia that Donald Trump has been so solicitous of Vladimir Putin? What does Vladimir Putin have on him? What are Trump's financial interests in Russia? Mueller felt that was outside his jurisdiction. And it's just part of a larger story of what Mueller did not do.
CAMEROTA: Why -- I do want to get to the book right now, but, very quickly, I just want to say that it's Michael Cohen who suggested in front of Congress that Donald Trump was illegally fudging the numbers of the Trump Organization, and he gave names of people who would know that. And we know he's been interviewed, I think, by prosecutors several times since then. So he may be the key to whatever prosecutors are going to find. But let's talk about your book because you basically talk about Mueller's failings. And so here's one portion. You say Mueller's caution and reticence led him to fail at his two most important tasks thanks to the clever actions and strategic inaction of Trump's legal team, Mueller failed to obtain a meaningful interview with Trump himself. Even worse, Mueller convinced himself, wrongly, that he had to write a final report that was nearly incomprehensible to ordinary citizens in its legal conclusions. Yeah, those are two biggies. I mean, why -- why did Mueller do that?
TOOBIN: Well, you know, the -- the Mueller team, led by Mueller himself, were honorable, competent, highly skilled, experienced prosecutors. But they -- you know, the -- the irony -- we know history is so full of ironies. They were so criticized by the President for their inaction -- for their aggressiveness and for their zeal, the real story, I think, was -- was when they didn't display enough zeal. The story of how and why Trump's legal team was able to avoid a subpoena and managed to satisfy Mueller just by giving these very bland, uninformative, written answers to written questions, is really an extraordinary story of how Rudolph Giuliani, despite his bizarre behavior, was very clever in stretching that negotiation out so far that it actually created in the impression in Mueller's office that the legal fight would take too long. He did not -- you know, he could have pressed the issue earlier, and he didn't. And as for the report, you know, the -- the -- the -- we all remember the Office of Legal Counsel opinion that says the President can't be indicted while he's in office. But Mueller convinced himself that because of that, he couldn't say -- Mueller couldn't say whether the President actually committed a crime, because the President would never have his day in court to defend himself. But I thought that was a real abdication, especially when you look at the evidence of obstruction of justice that Mueller compiled in this meticulous, thorough, effective investigation. Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice. It's quite clear. Worse than Bill Clinton. Worse than Richard Nixon. Both of whom were -- for -- I mean Nixon was forced out of office, Clinton was impeached. The evidence was stronger against Trump. But Mueller pulled that punch, and I think it was -- it -- it -- it was a gift to Donald Trump.
BERMAN: And, by the way, Jeffrey, you don't mince words at all in the book about obstruction of justice. You write, just as you said just now, the President obstructed justice full stop. The other thing -- and I'm glad you brought up Rudy -- Rudy Giuliani, that you do in your book, you talk about what a good job Giuliani did as a lawyer and PR agent on the Mueller investigation for the president, in your opinion. But then you say he may have done the worst lawyering -- lawyering job in all of history as it pertains to Ukraine. And you so cleverly interlay the Ukraine issue with the Mueller investigation, putting Giuliani's first meeting with Lev Parnas right in the chronology there.
TOOBIN: Well, you know, it -- it -- that -- that, to me, was -- you know, we -- we -- all of us, the three of us, all our colleagues covered this story every day for so long. The opportunity to write a book -- book and pull it together, you see different things. And one of the -- one of the things that I thought was one of the most important was that the Russia story and the Ukraine story were really one story. When you look at the issue of collusion and the desire to use foreign governments and foreign money and foreign power for Trump's personal and political advancement, it was exactly the same idea in -- with Russia and -- and with Ukraine. Same thing with obstruction of justice. When you do something you're embarrassed about, you lie about it and you obstructed justice. Same -- same in both. The big difference was that in -- in Russia, Trump was just a real estate developer with a long-shot run for president. He didn't have anything to give. He didn't have the power to help out or coerce Putin to do anything. What was different in Ukraine is that he was already the President and he had leverage, and he has the power of the U.S. government. And you see in the infamous July 25, 2019, phone call, in the whole range of effort that -- that Trump made about Ukraine, how he coerced Ukraine, not for the national interest, but just to get himself re-elected. That's what was so important, so different about the two stories.
CAMEROTA: The book out today, True Crimes and Misdemeanors by Jeffrey Toobin. Thank you for giving us a preview. Great to talk to you, Jeffrey.
