CNN's John Berman hammers GOP senator who tries to brush off Cohen's plea: 'This is a criminal violation!'

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) went on CNN Thursday morning to try to downplay this week's guilty plea of President Donald Trump's former "fixer" Michael Cohen -- but he was quickly cornered by host John Berman.

When asked by Berman what the implications were for the president of Cohen pleading guilty to making an illegal campaign donation to serve as hush money for former Trump mistresses, Rounds said it was a tiny violation and not a major scandal.

"There's a difference between being in violation of a campaign finance law, which in many cases is settled on a civil side," he argued. "You can have violations of a campaign finance law and, in fact, I think there were some by Mr. Obama..."

Berman quickly interjected, however.

"But those were civil," he pointed out. "This is criminal. This is a criminal violation."

"No, wait," Rounds objected. "We don't know whether we're talking about a criminal violation."

"Michael Cohen is!" Berman shot back. "Michael Cohen absolutely pleaded to a criminal violation!"

Rounds then stammered a bit before responding.

"Well, but, Mr. Trump did not," he said.

Watch the video below.