WATCH: Don Lemon Forced to Tell Panelists to Take Turns Beating Up Trump Defender
This was a tough day to be Donald Trump, let alone a professional Donald Trump defender, but that’s the job CNN contributor Mike Shields signed up for. On Tuesday night, Shields had a rough time when he tried to convince Don Lemon and panel that Nancy Pelosi needs to watch her “tone.”
On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN Tonight, Shields had the unenviable task of trying to commentate from the smoking wreckage of Trump’s disastrous meeting with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and damned if he didn’t try to get every variation of “fetch” to happen.
First, Shields tried to feign hope that Pelosi would continue to publicly beat Trump like a rented area rug on a clothesline, insisting that Pelosi is the perfect choice to replace Hillary Clinton as Trump’s “foil,” and trying to paint her as a weak speaker because of a failed effort to oppose her.
But Lemon quickly pointed out that while Clinton tried to play “nice” while running against Trump, Pelosi doesn’t mind the role of aggressor. Fellow panelist Bakari Sellers noted that even Hillary Clinton managed to get three million more votes than Trump. And Ana Navarro pointed out that while Pelosi stands to gain the speakership basically unopposed, outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan faced stiff challengers for his spot.
Then, Lemon went in for the kill, asking Shields “What happened to Mexico paying for the wall?”
With nowhere else to go, Shields agreed with Lemon that it makes no sense to ask Congress to pay for a wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. But then he changed the subject back to Pelosi.
“A lot of people on the left have criticized the president for the last two years for his tone, and for being so aggressive,” Shields said. “And yet what you see in Democrats, their base is so angry that their politicians now have to show tone and we’re saying things like ‘She owned him’ and, you know, ‘Chuck Schumer really got him in this meeting.'”
Lemon laughed out loud and said “Well, he did,” and when the other panelists ran in to dunk on Shields as well, Lemon told them “One at a time, beat up on him one at a time.”
“I am not a member of the Nancy Pelosi fan club,” Navarro said over Shields’ protests, “but you cannot compare Nancy pelosi’s tone today when she pushed back, but did so in a classy and professional manner, with what we have heard from Donald Trump in the campaign. If you’re able to get me video and audio of Nancy Pelosi boasting of grabbing a man’s crotch, then I will tell you it’s even.”
Shields ended by predicting that Democrats will go “too far” in trying to be aggressive with Trump, but from the reviews Pelosi is getting, it seems to have worked out for them today.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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