Watch Rick Santorum Struggle To Defend Michael Flynn Leading ‘Lock Her Up’ Chants

Tuesday night was a tough one for Trump surrogates.

Discussing what was undoubtedly the worst day for Donald Trump as president following the conviction of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and guilty plea by attorney Michael Cohen, CNN political commentator Rick Santorum seemed largely defeated while attempting to provide the pro-Trump view on Anderson Cooper 360. The ex-GOP senator did, however, try to push back when anchor Anderson Cooper said the president had surrounded himself with crooks and criminals.

“To say he surrounded himself with convicted criminals, I mean, they were not convicted criminals when he surrounded himself with them,” Santorum contended. “I think that’s a little too much.”

This resulted in Cooper and Santorum having a back-and-forth over when someone should be considered a criminal, with the CNN host noting Trump’s associates had already broken the law and Cohen claims the president directed him to commit crimes.

After turning to CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin for a bit to talk about Trump surrounding himself with “scuzzy people,” Cooper went back to Santorum while highlighting that one of those smarmy characters was former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

“General Flynn was — is not a smarmy character,” the former Republican presidential candidate objected. “General Flynn served this country terrifically as a military officer.”

This then resulted in an odd exchange in which Cooper highlighted Flynn infamously leading a “lock her up” chant at the Republican National Convention and attempted to get Santorum to admit Flynn was a hypocrite.

“You know, he made a mistake, and he committed a crime, and he took the hit for it,” the conservative pundit said. “But to suggest that that’s a bad guy to surround yourself with, I think is overstating the case.”

Cooper noted that while Flynn had a great military career, “but if you’re leading chants of lock her up, and then you’re the one who actually gets locked up, you’re a hypocrite.”

Santorum replied that he didn’t think the general was a hypocrite, causing Cooper to ask if this meant Flynn was a “victim of karma” — all with a bemused look on his face.

This would continue for a bit longer, with Santorum providing some additional excuses and Cooper tossing some more confused looks the pro-Trump commentator’s way.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.