CNN Anchor Catches Trump Defenders Flat-Footed Trying To Explain Obama Conspiracy

CNN anchor Abby Phillip caught defenders of President Donald Trump on her panel flat-footed on the specifics of the latest distraction from the uproar over dead sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

The Trump administration’s attempt to bury the so-called “Epstein Files” is now in its third week, and the heat just keeps going up.

Among the latest developments are a House subcommittee voting to subpoena all documents relating to the case, a bombshell report that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump he was in the Epstein Files in May, and a document dump from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard meant to support Trump’s baseless and discredited accusation of “treason” against former President Barack Obama and his top officials.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip discussed the latter topic with a panel comprised of Scott Jennings, Ana Navarro, Caroline Downey, Keith Boykin, and Jeff Flake.

During a wild segment, Phillip pressed the two conservatives on the details. First, she asked Jennings to “back up” the assertions against Obama — and Jennings came up empty:

JENNINGS: Here’s the scandal.

PHILLIP: Oh, do tell.

JENNINGS: No votes, you just said, and I think you’re right. Maybe they tried. It had no impact on the election. The scandal is this, that high ranking Democrats abuse their intelligence positions to try to convince half the American people and one entire political party that Russia stole the 2016 election and they succeeded today. It is an article of faith among Democrats —

PHILLIP: How did they — I think, Scott, you have to actually back that up. How did they do that in your opinion? I mean, you’re alleging that there was a conspiracy led by Obama to say that Russia changed the votes, which they did not say. So, what are you talking about exactly?

JENNINGS: No. I’m telling you that the program was this. They were shocked that Donald Trump won the election. They couldn’t believe it. And so these people, I don’t know who is responsible for it ultimately, but it deserves investigation.

BOYKIN: Wait a minute. Just a minute ago, but you were saying The Wall Street Journal —

JENNINGS: Why don’t you let me finish? These people wanted it. These people want it, the American people to believe that it was an illegitimate president. That was the point.

PHILLIP: Who are “these people?”

Minutes later, Downey asserted that Obama was “the architect” of a “hoax,” but could only trail off when Phillip asked her to explain, “What exactly was he the architect of?”:

CAROLINE DOWNEY: I think we’re getting a little confused about what this Russia bombshell actually is.

UNKNOWN: It’s not a bombshell.

DOWNEY: It’s saying — well, actually, it is.

UNKNOWN: Oh, gosh.

DOWNEY: It’s showing that Obama was indeed the architect of the Russian collusion hoax —

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: Of what?

DOWNEY: — because he fed fake intelligence to the media —

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: Wait a second.

DOWNEY: — which served as a basis for multiple smear campaigns against the sitting president —

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: What — well, hold on. What exactly was he the architect of?

DOWNEY: He’s — he’s the one who gave the — his — his officials gave the assessment to the media that was derived from the discredited Steele dossier.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: What did the assessment — what did the assessment say?

DOWNEY: The Steele dossier?

PHILLIP: What did the assessment say? The I.C. assessment. What did it say?

DOWNEY: The assessment was derived from the Steele dossier which said that Trump was accused–

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: No. What did it actually say? Not what is it derived from. What did it actually say? What was the conclusion of the I.C. assessment?

DOWNEY: I’m not going to like, you’re —

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: Because — okay. All right. I’ve said it a thousand times at this table.

(CROSSTALK)

ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The conclusion was that the Russians tried to meddle in the elections —

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: Yes.

NAVARRO: –that they had done all sorts of things.

PHILLIP: Exactly.

NAVARRO: But there was no evidence that they had changed the results.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: It does not say that they changed the votes. That is not what it said.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.