Making good on the network’s alleged promise to bring on actual conservatives, Wednesday’s CNN Primetime brought in Article III Project founder and former Justice Gorsuch clerk Mike Davis to debate host Pamela Brown over the conflicts of interest in Donald Trump’s Trump case before Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan.
Spoiler alert: It didn’t go well for Brown as she repeatedly pushed back against even the existence of such conflicts, which was rich considering she’s the daughter of a former Democratic governor, the late John Brown (KY).
Brown bemoaned Trump’s statements as threatening from the get-go: “Why target the judge, like that in particular?”
Davis responded with the obvious, which was that “Trump understands that this is a political prosecution against him by a George Soros-funded Manhattan D.A., Alvin Bragg.”
Brown interjected as though Davis had spouted off a pants-on-fire lie: “Okay. Let me just stop you, right there. He’s not — George Soros donated to a PAC that then donated to Alvin Bragg. Go ahead.”
Davis calmly pushed back that he did support him as the PAC he gave money to “went to support Alvin Bragg’s campaign” with the prosecution having arrived despite the fact that “the prior Manhattan D.A..” “[t]he Manhattan U.S. Attorney,” and “[t]he Federal Election Commission declined to prosecute these charges.”
He added that Bragg only changed course once “he started taking heat, from the left and so, then Alvin Bragg recruited the — one of the top officials, from the Biden Justice Department, Matthew Colangelo,” who had been working for Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta (and served in that role in an acting capacity prior to her Senate confirmation).
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Brown next moved to brushing off Davis’s next point about how even some of her fellow liberal journalists have raised concerns about the case Bragg brought and demanded “evidence” that “this former DOJ employee, under Biden, is colluding in this conspiracy, against Trump?”
Davis was incredulous and drew further ire when he said Trump wouldn’t get a fair trial as Manhattan almost uniformly voted for President Biden.
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The back-and-forth ended when Brown tried one last time to have Davis denounce Trump: “But I’m just wondering, is that what you’re implying that that then justifies Trump, targeting the judge, publicly?”
Davis fired back: “Justify speaking out? You don’t think Trump is allowed to speak out publicly about an outrageous — so, he can’t criticize the — well, I think there’s a — I think you have to look at the history of this judge.”
All the while, Brown clapped back and twice insisted she wasn’t “saying that.”