During an appearance on CNN's "New Day" -- along with fellow Republican Charlie Dent (PA) -- ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) received a lecture from host John Berman on why Donald Trump's tweets and attacks on four Democratic lawmakers were racist.

While Dent revealed that down-ticket Republicans running for re-election in 2020 are "terrified" that Trump's descent into overt racism as a campaign strategy may kill their chances of holding their seats, Santorum said he was disgusted with the whole spectacle while saying he didn't see the attacks as racist.

Asked about the president's attacks, Santorum tried to brush them away and blame the recipients of Trump's ire.

A CNN panel convened to discuss new evidence that shows Donald Trump was heavily involved in the plot to keep his affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels secret before the 2016 election concluded that it is one more impeachable offense.

Speaking with hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota, CNN commentator Errol Louis said that the newly revealed texts messages and phone-calls between former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump aide Hope Hicks prove that the then-candidate was in the thick of it before the election.

"He did know, Errol," host Berman explained. "All the evidence is he knew. There's all these phone calls, there are the checks. There's Michael Cohen's testimony. The evidence says the president was lying to the American people."

On Thursday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," contributor Ron Brownstein reacted with outrage to President Donald Trump's attempts to disown his supporters' racist chants of "Send Her Back!" regarding Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) while at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina.

"Let me read a tweet that generated a lot of reaction, a tweet that you posted," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "It goes like this. 'If 20 high school students chanted this at a classmate how many would be expelled? If 20 employees yelled this at a colleague how many would be fired? If 20 Army soldiers aimed this at a platoon mate how many would be discharged? How much of US will accept this as a new standard?' You got a lot of reaction from that."