CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin and Ken Starr Clash Over Interim Attorney General: He’s ‘Obscure’ and ‘Unqualified’

Jeffrey Toobin and former Solicitor General Ken Starr clashed Thursday over new interim Attorney General Matt Whitaker.

In a CNN New Day segment helmed by Alisyn Camerota, Toobin challenged Starr about President Donald Trump‘s new pick to be the nation’s top cop. Toobin believes Whitaker’s primary — if not sole — qualification for the job, in Trump’s eyes, is the fact that Whitaker is a critic of Robert Mueller‘s probe.

“You know the Department of Justice,” Toobin told Starr. “You know the kind of people who are named Attorney General of the United States. Just what about naming someone frankly this obscure and this unqualified just because he’s been critical of the Mueller investigation?”

“That’s a little bit unfair,” Starr replied. “Yes, [deputy AG] Rod Rosenstein is the natural, there’s no question, to become the attorney general. I’ll concede that. But what we do know about Mr. Whitaker is he’s served with great distinction as a United States attorney, and he’s been chief of staff now for quite some time. So he has seen the Department of Justice close up and personal.”

Starr went on to advance the argument that Mueller would actually resign if he felt Whitaker interfered with his investigation.

“If the attorney general says, I don’t want you to do X, then Bob Mueller says, here’s my letter of resignation,” Starr said. “And then the firestorm begins, right?”

Both Camerota and Toobin were visibly befuddled by Starr’s argument.

“Wow, Ken,” Toobin said. “I mean, that’s a pretty extreme idea, that Robert Mueller would resign in protest.”

Watch above, via CNN.