The CNN panel on Don Lemon's Thursday show was aghast at President Donald Trump's nerve attacking Sen. Al Franken (R-MN), when Trump admitted to doing the same thing during an "Access Hollywood" interview. Lemon noted that Trump has been silent on accusations that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore sexually assaulted minors.
Even Republican Jack Kingston, a frequent Trump apologist, said that the president should be sticking to highlighting the GOP tax bill instead of weighing in on something that is a distraction from his legislative agenda.
"This is the moral leadership we've all been begging for," Republican commentator Margaret Hoover said, after a shocked pause among the panelists.
"When it's a Democrat he'll go after them he's free to talk about it," Lemon noted. "When it's a Republican he won't do it."
"I think, again, it underscores, first of all the huge hypocrisy coming out of the president but also the huge lack of moral leadership," Democratic strategist Maria Cardona said. "I mean, this is not a president who should be tweeting about where hands go around attractive women. We all know where he wants his hands to go around attractive women. He told us in the 'Access Hollywood' tape. It's like a complete disconnect for him. But, I also think that he was enabled by his party, by the people who elected him, by the people who knew very well what kind of man this was around women, how he treated women, how he objectified women. And yet, they chose to look the other way."
She also noted that some of the Republicans on Capitol Hill condemning Moore but refused to do the same for Trump. She wondered if it was about timing and that if the "Access Hollywood" tape was released today if Trump would still be able to be elected given the uprising against sexual harassment and sexual assault.
"There wasn't this sort of tipping point that we're seeing now," Cardona continued. "But that doesn't make it excusable. So, when is the Republican Party, those who are now so upset about what's going on with Roy Moore, who are the same ones that looked away to get Trump elected, when is the comeuppance for that? When had are they going to acknowledge that?"
Lemon simply said he would hope a president of the United States would set a higher bar for moral behavior and character.
Watch the full exchange below:
