CNN segment goes off the rails when Trump backer defends anti-Semitic tweet by blaming Dems for slavery

CNN contributor Jeffrey Lord again called on Democrats to apologize for slavery, which ended more than 150 years ago, to deflect from Donald Trump's latest offensive outburst.

Lord appeared Tuesday morning on the cable network to defend an image shared by Trump on Twitter that originated with white supremacists and showed a Star of David and Hillary Clinton, who was described as the "most corrupt candidate ever."

Trump and his surrogates, including Lord and fellow CNN contributor Corey Lewandowski, have insisted the Star of David was actually a sheriff's badge.

"The sheriff's image is out there everywhere," Lord said. "This has been around in America (for) well over a century. When I saw this tweet that is exactly what I first thought of, was that it was the sheriff's badge over money, which meant she was corrupt -- crooked Hillary, which is one of the themes of the campaign."

Lord insisted that Democrats were the true anti-Semites and racists, not Trump.

"Frankly, I think some of this is a matter of culture," he said. "They took it down -- I don't think they should have taken it down, frankly. I mean, it just -- I mean, if we're going to talk about anti-Semitism then we need to talk about why we had people on the Democratic platform committee right now pushing anti-Israel point of views who were put there by Bernie Sanders. Why is there division over anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party? That's serious stuff."

The Trump surrogate and CNN host Alisyn Camerota then sparred over the minutiae of sheriff badges and whether the tips of those stars are typically blunted with small circles, before contributor Hilary Rosen pointed out how the Republican presidential candidate had repeatedly appealed to racists and bigots.

"With all due respect, if we're going to talk about division, I am always gobsmacked that Democrats like to play this game when they have been the party of racial division and, at the moment, they've got an anti-Semitism problem on their hands that they don't want to address," Lord said.

Rosen questioned whether a presidential candidate should use Twitter to share "emotional outbursts," and she said the presumptive GOP nominee "plays to hate" with his rhetoric.

"If we're going to get down to divisive politics and all this, I genuinely -- I've asked this question before and I'll ask it of Hilary again, or for the first time," Lord said. "Is the Democratic Party, which has written six platforms supporting slavery, are you finally ready to apologize? If you want to stop dividing the country, wouldn't that be a good place to start?"

Rosen looked completely baffled by Lord's question, and pointed out that President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, along with other Democratic presidents, had "consistently apologized for slavery."

"Yeah, but you never apologized for inflicting slavery on the country," Lord interrupted.

Rosen pointed out that Democratic presidents had worked for decades to advance civil rights for black Americans.

"The idea that Democrats had fallen on that is just not true," she said.