CNN host Don Lemon blasted President Trump on Monday night after comparing his former attorney Michael Cohen’s campaign violations to former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign for presidency.
Trump’s former personal attorney Cohen was sentenced to three years behind bars on Dec. 12 after he admitted to arranging hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the president’s 2016 campaign election. Prosecutors also implicated Trump in campaign finance violations.
In response to prosecutors, the president stated in a tweet on December 10, “Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun…No Collusion. … So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution… which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s. ….)”
The “CNN Tonight” host quickly fact-checked Trump’s campaign violation claims made against Obama and called the president’s remarks a “flat-out lie.”
“Legal experts will agree,” said Lemon.
The news anchor said the Obama’s 2008 campaign for presidency did miss “filing deadlines” and “did not properly refund excess contributions”, but “they admitted [it], and they paid the fines.”
“Some of my guests will tell you, campaigns are fined for doing that all the time, sometimes there are clerical errors, sometimes there are other reasons,” he added.
Lemon made it clear that Obama’s and Trump’s mismanagement situations are completely different.
“Creating a shell company or using a media company to pay hush money for affairs with a porn star and a Playboy model during an election so that the voting public wouldn’t find out… is not the same at all.”
The CNN host continued, “C’mon. Don’t be stupid. Don’t think people are stupid by pretending that is equal and the same thing. It is not.”
In November, Lemon was in hot water after calling White men the “biggest terror threats” to America. He remained unapologetic and told people to “look at the facts.”
“So people who were angered about what I said are missing the entire point. … We don’t need to worry about people who are thousands of miles away. The biggest threats are homegrown. The facts prove that.”