'Startling': Republican 'shocked' by big-name conservatives' tepid critique of Trump

A Republican told CNN viewers Friday evening that criticism among big-name conservative voices is "meaningful in the world of normal Republicans" — but chided them for "glossing over" President Donald Trump's move to direct the Justice Department to act on political retribution.

Conservative Margaret Hoover joined Erin Burnett's "OutFront" to discuss comments made this week by Kimberley Ann Strassel, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who wrote a book criticizing the Russia investigation.

McCarthy said the case against former FBI Director James Comey ought to be "thrown out" and Strassl said she didn't "think this case even gets to trial," calling it a “potentially a problematic prosecution.”

Burnett asked Hoover about the significance of conservatives coming out against the DOJ's prosecution of Comey.

"This is meaningful in the world of normal Republicans. Those normal Republicans are not deeply MAGA people, but they like Donald Trump," she said.

She noted those conservatives turn to Fox News and see key figures, including the "leading Trump defender on the Wall Street Journal editorial page" in Strassel and McCarthy say there's "really just not a good case here, and so the reason we shouldn't be litigating that is because people are going to be disappointed."

But Hoover called out both Strassel and McCarthy for not going far enough.

"And so what is shocking and startling for me as a Republican that does not relate to this iteration of the Republican Party, is that they've completely glossed over the fact that one person, the president of the United States, has directed his Department of Justice to act at his own behest for his own political restitution and retribution. They've glossed over that, right?" she said.

Hoover said the two are missing the major story and "pretending" like it's acceptable for the president to pick a private citizen and hijack a "blind and unbiased justice system" against them.