A former acting solicitor general pointed out that those who defend Donald Trump by claiming "everybody else does it" are acting like literal children.
Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general and current CNN contributor, responded to comments made -- and later walked back -- by retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
On Monday, Hatch said he "doesn't care" about alleged crimes committed by Trump, suggesting that other candidates make "hush payments" to people to keep scandals quiet and that Democrats are twisting laws to implicate the president.
"Hatch has since come back today and said he regrets that," CNN host John Berman told Katyal. "But what about the argument that he and others were making, that basically a lot of candidates do this type of thing. Would that hold any merit in a court of law?"
The former acting solicitor general said that argument wouldn't hold any water in court.
"We don’t make excuses for felons and say, 'oh, other people are doing it, too,'" Katyal said. "Other people aren’t doing it. This is a brazen campaign finance allegation of a magnitude we haven’t seen."
"Even if other people are doing it," he elaborated, "that’s the kind of defense you use in kindergarten. That is not what you use for a grown adult."
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