CNN reporter expresses regret at helping to create a false equivalency between Hillary Clinton and Doanld Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

So long as President Trump continues disgracing the Oval Office, thoughtful people will probe their own role in helping him get there. 

Such appeared to be the motivation behind a mea culpa issued by CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on comedian Larry Wilmore’s “Black on the Air” podcast. In a discussion of presidential politics, Wilmore argued that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, was the victim of a “coordinated attack” coming from Republicans. “Benghazi was … the expression of that attack. In fact, what’s his name, was it [former Rep. Jason] Chaffetz who actually kind of agreed that that’s what they were doing, was weakening her as a candidate.” (Wilmore may have been referring to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who said in 2015, “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”) 

No question about the attack on Clinton, responded Toobin, citing “all that bogus stuff about the Clinton Foundation” — perhaps a reference to the Uranium One story or even to the pre-election reporting of Bret Baier — later withdrawn — that there would be an indictment relating to the foundation.

“And I hold myself somewhat responsible for that,” continued Toobin, a steady presence on CNN since 2002. “I think there was a lot of false equivalence in the 2016 campaign. That every time we said something, pointed out something about Donald Trump — whether it was his business interests, or grab ’em by the p–––y, we felt like, ‘Oh, we gotta, like, talk about — we gotta say something bad about Hillary.’ And I think it led to a sense of false equivalence that was misleading, and I regret my role in doing that.”

I would suggest that not only did reporters often suggest that the phony Clinton "scandals" were similar to the raging dumpster fire that represented the Trump campaign, but that they actually suggested that Hillary's "crimes" were potentially more egregious.  

The coverage of Hillary's emails was insane.

So was the coverage of Benghazi, her fainting spell, and virtually everything she did which somebody could find reason to criticize.

In the meantime Trump was being accused of sexual assault, working with the Mafia, and colluding with the Russians to steal the election, and somehow those were seen as equivalent.

I hope that Jeffrey Toobin sets a precedent, and that soon we will hear apologies from a number of CNN, MSNBC, as well as network and print journalists for their part in attempting to even the playing field between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

There was nothing even about these two candidates, and the American people should have been informed of that fact.

CNN legal analyst: "Some of these Republican judges are just deranged by hatred of the president."

Courtesy of Politico:

 After accusing a federal appellate court panel of throwing a “hissy fit” about President Barack Obama, outspoken CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Thursday that the order requiring the president to explain his beliefs about judicial review was a “disgrace” and he called some Republican judges “deranged by their hatred for the president.” 

“I think what these judges have done is a disgrace,” Toobin said on CNN. “What President Obama said was entirely appropriate. There is nothing wrong, there’s nothing controversial.” 

“He said, ‘I signed a law that was passed by the democratically elected congress and I think it’s constitutional.’ And then these judges give the Justice Department a homework assignment, a three-page letter, single spaced, explaining what the president said,” he said. 

The order from 5th Circuit Judge Jerry E. Smith, a Ronald Reagan-appointee, seemed to be a direct shot at Obama’s much-debated comments on Monday in which he said that the Supreme Court would be guilty of an “unprecedented” act of “judicial activism” if it strikes down the health care reform law. 

What the appellate court’s request boils down to, Toobin argued Thursday, is that some GOP judges are simply out to get Obama for partisan reasons and that the president is in no position to “threaten” the Supreme Court, as many of his critics have suggested.  

“That was a perfectly appropriate comment by the president and it just shows how some of these Republican judges are just deranged by hatred of the president,” he said. 

He added: “The president has no leverage over the Supreme Court. He can’t threaten. What’s he going to threaten to do? …’If you rule this way, I’m not going to invite you to a State dinner’?” 

Good for Jeffrey Toobin!

Personally I think we have been witnessing the politicization of the judiciary for decades. In the past judges may have been appointed by either a Republican, or Democratic, President, but they usually put respect for the law well before their ideological considerations.

I think we can all agree that those days are past. Which has been made all the more obvious since the election of Barack Obama.

However what is happening today, as it concerns this president, seems to be coming from a darker place. And in my opinion a racist place.

Republicans in general, and Republican judges included, seem to be completely unable to demonstrate any respect for President Obama.  It is as if they are simply incapable of seeing him as their President.

And it cannot be attributed to his liberal policies, since he is by NO means the most liberal president we have had in the last 50 years. 

Nor can it be his  refusal to work across party lines, since as WE all know that he has done everything but offer to cut the crust off their sandwiches in order to get the Republicans to meet him part way in order deal with the problems facing this country.

No what they are reacting to is something MUCH more primitive.

And it seems that it has even filtered up to the Supreme Court, some of whose members may in fact be getting their framework for how to interpret the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act from Fox News.

I have to say that I am suffering from irony overload by the fact that the GOP is CONSTANTLY bitching about "activist judges," while pointing in the direction of the Left, when in fact the MOST activist judges this country has ever seen are products of a Right Wing ideology.

Or is THAT something we simple minded Americans are not supposed to be noticing?