CNN's Chris Cuomo busts Trump for leaking Cohen tape news to distract from fact he was 'owned by Putin' in Helsinki

On Friday, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, and former lawmaker Bakari Sellers (D-SC) said the timing of the release of private tapes belonging to President Donald Trump's lawyer Micheal Cohen was suspect because it came in the midst of backlash against President Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin.

"The timing, too much of a coincidence," Cuomo said at the start of his show.

"It is a coincidence," Sellers said."I also think that every single day we're dealing with Trump's America, there is something new happening, What we learned today is, one, Donald Trump's a liar. I think we already knew that. Two, Rudy Giuliani is not the best attorney. And, three, that Michael Cohen is unethical.

"It seems that team Trump is happy this tape came out. Why?" Cuomo asked.

Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum said that President Trump is not trying to hide anything.

"First off, there was no payment made," Santorum argued. "I don't know what Bakari is talking about. There was no payment made. There was a payment discussed. So the reality is that there isn't anything illegal here, and that's why they put it out there. I'd rather not have that information out. But other than that, I don't think there's much of a story here."

Sellers then fired back by saying that President Trump is "lobbing distractions."

"I think team Trump is actually leveling and lobbing a lot of distractions," he said. "We saw him tweet about the NFL and Roger Goodell today. We see this new porn star. This new Playboy Playmate came out. So I think they want a distraction from the fact he was fundamentally owned by Vladimir Putin earlier this week."

Watch below.