CNN's Cuomo hammers Alan Dershowitz for defending Trump: 'Have you seen this president respect any tradition?'

CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday grilled Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz about his Tuesday evening dinner with President Donald Trump -- and he nailed him for overlooking the dangers that this particular president presents to the rule of law.

During the segment, Dershowitz insisted that Trump was not likely to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, despite the fact that the president has made increasingly personal attacks on Mueller and his team in recent weeks. Dershowitz argued that while Trump would have the power to fire Mueller or to otherwise curtail his probe, the president would likely not do so given the past precedents of presidents declining to exercise such powers.

"Historically, presidents do, under executive authority, have the right to determine who should be investigated and who should not," he insisted. "But there's a long tradition of presidents not doing that, and I think it would be a serious mistake and a mistake that would lose himself support on many Republicans."

Cuomo then dropped the hammer and pointed out that Trump has in the past spat on past precedents for presidential behavior.

"Have you seen this president respect any tradition of that nature since he's been president?" he asked.

"Well, I think that he should respect this tradition," Dershowitz replied. "It would be a mistake to do any firing."

Later in the segment, Cuomo mocked Dershowitz for insisting that he didn't give Trump any legal advice when the two men had dinner on Tuesday.

"You spent a whole dinner with him, and President Trump sat across from one of the most esteemed lawyers in the country and didn't ask you for any advice on these legal issues?" Cuomo asked him incredulously. "What did you say? 'This is a beautiful piece of chicken?'"

Watch the video below.