Frantic Rick Santorum cornered by CNN's John Berman for giving Trump a blank check to break the law

CNN's John Berman on Thursday cornered Trump defender Rick Santorum, who tried to argue that President Donald Trump didn't break the law when he ordered hush-money payments to his former mistresses.

During the interview, Berman pointed out to Santorum that both former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer parent company American Media, Inc. have now admitted to working in concert with Trump to break campaign finance laws in an attempt to swing the 2016 presidential election.

Santorum, however, said that Trump still says he didn't break the law, which means others' assertions to the contrary should be discounted.

"Just because AMI did it, that doesn't mean that's the sole reason Donald Trump did it," Santorum said of the payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. "What you gave is AMI's reasoning, not Donald Trump's reasoning."

Santorum then tried to argue that former President Barack Obama's campaign was also hit with fees for violating campaign finance laws, but Berman didn't let him get away with making a false comparison.

"That is so vastly different than paying $150,000 to silence somebody," Berman said.

Later in the segment, Berman shamed Santorum for being so deferential to the president when it comes to following the law.

"Is there any violation, is there any payment that the president could have made here that would bother you, that you would think would put him in legal jeopardy?" Berman asked. "I am trying to figure out if this is just a blanket acquiescence to the president's claims here, or whether or not there's some standard to which you would hold him accountable?"

Watch the video below.