CNN Anchor Asks If Trump Affair With Porn Star Stormy Daniels — Who Calls Him ‘Tiny’ — Shows ‘Manly Vigor’

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt conducted an absurd and mercifully brief panel discussion on whether former President Donald Trump’s affair with porn star Stormy Daniels — who has nicknamed Trump “Tiny” and mocked his sexual prowess publicly — conveys “manly vim and vigor” to some voters.

Stormy Daniels — the stage name of the former Stephanie Clifford — is back in the news because of the imminent trial in the case that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought involving hush money payments to Daniels, which resulted in a several-dozen-count indictment of Trump.

On Friday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, during a panel discussion on Trump’s many impending felony trials, this stunning exchange took place between Hunt, CNN analyst Karen Finney, and NeverTrump Republican Sarah Longwell:

LONGWELL: He’s succeeding right now. I will say when I listen to voters talk, they know the number, 91 indictments, but they have a really hard time separating out which case is which.

And, you know, this is why I was always worried about the New York case going first, because if the first case is about porn star, that is a thing that sticks in voters’ minds. When you are dealing with two men where age is a big issue, it actually gives one of them quite an advantage if what everybody is talking about is an issue with a porn star.

There’s a lot of — I don’t know what to tell you about voters, but that is —

HUNT: I hadn’t thought about it that way. Yes.

LONGWELL: That is just the way people — people think.

And so I think, obviously, there are cases that are better and worse for Trump. What is much worse for Trump is if January 6 is a case that people are hearing about right before the election, because that is one of the main things that I hear from Republican voters who are reluctant to vote for Trump that makes them want a break with the president.

But the New York case is one where the entire right-wing media will sort of rally around to be, like, this is stupid, this is silly, and a lot of voters will feel that way.

HUNT: And basically, there is a manly vim and vigor on display that —

LONGWELL: Yes.

HUNT: — Biden doesn’t have, is that the argument?

LONGWELL: That’s — I’m not making an argument so much as I’m saying, how —

HUNT: No, no, I understand. Right.

LONGWELL: — voters perceive it.

HUNT: Is that the perception?

LONGWELL: Yes.

KAREN FINNEY: I hate to say it, but even in 2016, the fact that he’d had some affairs, and there was, you know, the porn star stuff was out there, for male voters, that was something of a plus, I’m sorry to say. You know, of course, we were like we cannot compete with that.

This conversation is absurd on its face for a number of very obvious reasons — chief among them being that Daniels herself regularly derides Trump’s — let’s call it the “vim” component — by comparing him to a mushroom and referring to him by the nickname “Tiny.”

As for the “vigor,” Daniels has also been outspoken about Trump’s performance, as she was in a characteristic Twitter post in which she wrote “You can register to vote in less time than it took Tiny to…well, you know. Its significantly less traumatic as too.”

She has also said she prayed for death during their encounter, among other things. And even that encounter, if you’re still examining the internal “logic” of this discussion, occurred when Trump was 60 years old — and has little bearing on his abilities as he pushes 80.

If you’re going to invoke this dopey premise during a news show, these are factors that should be mentioned. But should they be mentioned? Should President Joe Biden be hypothetically disadvantaged for keeping his sex life relatively private by not cheating on his wife or having to pay out hush money? That doesn’t seem right. Nobody asked for this.

But more than that, these people are laughing it up about an incident that has even deeper and more disturbing details that should be considered before blithely joking and fabricating a political advantage.

If Daniels is to be believed, the revolting details of her association with Trump include the fact that when they met, Trump told her “You remind me of my daughter.”

Daniels also said after she tried to go public, a goon threatened her while her infant was inches away:

Stormy Daniels: I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. T– taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin’ all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.” And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.” And then he was gone.

While it’s not known whether Bragg will call her, Daniels has said she is ready to testify in court. If these kinds of details become the subject of daily court updates, non-MAGA people won’t be laughing.

This is an absurd argument that has no place on a news show — and certainly not without providing crucial facts — that is literally their job. Do better, CNN.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.