“That There Is Libel!”: CNN Host Calls Out Trump’s Lawyer For Accusing Hillary Of Murder
It appeared that CNN host Ashleigh Banfield finally had enough bullshit for one day and just let loose during the Tuesday broadcast of Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield. While using her hourlong slot to roast Republicans for the pathetic charade known as the Benghazi Select Committee, she also had time to excoriate Michael Cohen, lawyer and advisor to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Earlier in the morning, Cohen decided to send out a conspiratorial tweet aimed at Hillary Clinton. The tweet was a two-pronged attack. Cohen wanted to highlight a silver lining in a recent poll — yet another poll showing Trump down to Clinton — while also reminding people that Republicans were releasing their findings from the Benghazi investigation. The attorney and faithful Trump surrogate attached a meme accusing Hillary of being a murderer, among other things.
Well, Ashleigh went after Cohen with both guns a-blazin’, informing Cohen that not only was the tweet offensive and below the level of political discourse expected from high-level aides of candidates, but that it is also straight-up libel, and could open him up to legal action.
From Media Matters’ transcript of the segment:
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD (HOST): Let me do a complete about-face here, and Nia-Malika [Henderson], I want you to take a look at a tweet that just came out from Michael Cohen, who was one of the chief advisers for Donald Trump. He’s worked within the Trump organization, he said this: “The NBC Wall Street Journal poll has @realDonald Trump beating crooked Hillary on honesty and national security. This picture says it all.” And If you read what the meme says, and I’ll quote the meme here: “I presided over $6 billion lost at the State Department, sold uranium to the Russians through my faux charity, illegally deleted public records and murdered an ambassador. This show is called Legal View because we know a thing or two about the law, and Michael Cohen is a lawyer. That there is libel. To suggest that a woman murdered an ambassador, look, it’s not as though Hillary Clinton’s team is about to go and launch some litigation on this, but that’s pretty strident stuff.
[…]
BANFIELD: Let’s just be really frank here, people. Don’t call someone a murderer of an ambassador, for God’s sake. It’s offensive to Americans who really want the truth and what’s going on in politics. Please, give us a break.
Despite Banfield’s (and others) objection to the tweet, and noting how out-of-bounds it is, it is still sitting there on Cohen’s timeline. Of course, Cohen probably feels someone at CNN will come to his defense later on in the day, considering the network has three full-time, well-paid Trumpkins on staff now.
Remember, the Trump team is in the midst of their much-discussed PIVOT, which this is obviously a big part of, no doubt.
Video of the segment is below, via Media Matters:
