CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Roasts Trump DOJ Honcho to His Face Over Dinner Protesters

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins took on Trump Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over his claim that protesters who chanted at President Donald Trump in a restaurant could be prosecuted under racketeering laws.

Trump staged a photo op at Joe’s Seafood in Washington, D.C., to promote his police crackdown earlier this month, but was booed on his way in and out of the restaurant, and accosted by protesters calling him “Hitler” while inside.

During an Oval Office photo op on Monday, Trump suggested the protesters could be prosecuted under RICO statutes.

On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins interviewed Blanche and delivered several pointed retorts when the deputy AG defended Trump’s assertion:

COLLINS: You were in the Oval Office, when the President was talking about that yesterday. He also talked about racketeering charges. At one point, he referenced the women that were protesting him, at the seafood restaurant, when he was at dinner, the other night, outside the White House.

This is what he said in the Oval, for those who missed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The people — there were a lot of people in the restaurant. I went there to show how safe, and it was safe. I mean, the woman is just a mouthpiece, or she was — she was a paid — she was a paid agitator, and you have a lot of them. And I’ve asked Pam to look into that in terms of RICO, bringing RICO cases against them — criminal RICO, because they should be put in jail. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: As you know, RICO has been used to go after like al Qaeda, MS-13, the Gambino family. How would something like that protest fall under a RICO charge?

BLANCHE: That’s not what we use RICO for only. RICO is available to all kinds of organizations committing crimes and committing wrongful acts, not just organized crime or ISIS or terrorist organizations. And so, it depends.

So is it, again, sheer happenstance that individuals show up at a restaurant, where the President is trying to enjoy dinner, in Washington, D.C., and accost him with vile words and vile anger? And meanwhile, he’s simply trying to have dinner. Does it mean it’s just completely random that they showed up? Maybe. Maybe.

But to the extent that it’s part of an organized effort, to inflict harm and terror and damage to the United States, there’s potential — potential investigations there. And that’s — that’s what the President was saying, yesterday, in the Oval Office, and what he’s also has said in the days before that as well.

COLLINS: But were those women in the restaurant inflicting harm, or terror, or damage, by protesting the President of the United States? I mean, they were just shouting basically in his vicinity.

BLANCHE: I mean, repeat what you just said. I mean, honestly. So, you’re asking whether there’s damage done by four individuals, screaming and yelling at the President of our United States while he’s trying to have dinner. That can’t be a serious question. That cannot be a serious question. I mean, it’s true that there’s a difference between shouting and committing an assassination–

COLLINS: People can protest the President.

BLANCHE: –committing an assassination, which is what happened to Charlie.

COLLINS: There were supporters outside as well.

BLANCHE: Well it depend — there’s nothing wrong with peaceful protests, and nobody has ever said so. Of all the people in this country, President Trump knows exactly what it’s like, to have people protest against him.

But what he’s talking about, and what the administration is talking about, is organized efforts by individuals, who are not present at the protests, but they’re funding these protests, and they’re not protests. They’re inflicting damage and harm, and actually assaulting officers. They’re damaging vehicles. And that’s the conduct that we’re trying to stop.

COLLINS: Well, I mean, people would argue about the ability to have free speech and to protest the government and criticize the government.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.