CNN's Anderson Cooper: 'Lewandowski can tell them to go F-themselves and they can't do anything about it'

After the Trump campaign's Hispanic outreach coordinator said he agreed with fired Breitbart executive Steve Bannon's plan to "cripple" the special counsel's investigation, his fellow CNN panelists — and host Anderson Cooper himself — clamored over each other to shoot the idea down.

"I'm thoroughly with Bannon on this," Trump backer Steve Cortes said of the ex-White House chief strategist's plan that involves firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, ending the president's cooperation with Mueller and exerting retroactive executive privilege. "This is an investigation in search of a crime, and nothing can be more un-American than that."

As soon as the words "un-American" came out of Cortes' mouth, co-panelist and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona began shaking her head and saying "come on!" She stared incredulously at the onetime Trump campaign adviser as he compared the investigation to USSR leader Joseph Stalin. The rest of the panel burst into conversation at once.

"This is why there's a bipartisan bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee [to protect Mueller] right now — because of folks like you!" former Bernie Sanders campaign press secretary Symone Sanders said.

Taking Sanders' comment and spinning it, Cortes said Congress, as a co-equal branch of government, has "every right" to investigate the president and that they "have enormous powers to do so." Once again, the panel erupted in outrage.

"They don't have the same powers as the special counsel," Cooper said. "[Former Trump campaign manager] Corey Lewandowski can tell them to go F themselves and they can't do anything about it."

From there, the discussion devolved into chaos as panelists took turns taking shots at Cortes' argument.

Watch below, via CNN: