'Mulvaney lied': CNN panel breaks down 'incredibly damning' White House confession

On Thursday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," a panel discussed how White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney's press briefing was a disaster for President Donald Trump.

"Can I just point out why this matters?" said CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. "I mean, this is not just some gotcha thing because we all want to get something on the chief of staff. Here we have congressionally appropriated money. Congress says give this money to the Ukrainians. Taxpayer money. And what the White House has done and what they admitted today was, you only get the money if you help us win the election. Not because you help us [with] national security, international relations. The only thing we want from you is help to defeat Democrats. That is wrong. That’s why this matters."

"What Mulvaney is claiming is that our interest in — our interest in finding out about the server about Ukraine and what was really behind the hacks of the DNC, not Russia, Mulvaney is claiming, Jeff, that’s all about corruption in Ukraine, when it’s not at all. It’s about a benefit for the president," said Cooper.

"Well, that’s right," said Toobin. "Out of all the things you could talk about — and Ukraine certainly has corruption problems — the only thing they’re talking about is this weird obsession with this fake story about the 2016 election. Now I do think in fairness, I should say, that Mulvaney lied about the Biden side of things."

"Of course he did," agreed Cooper.

"I think he clearly lied about that," said Toobin. "Because we have that from the president’s own mouth in the partial transcript, that what they really wanted was dirt to use not about 2016. What they really wanted was dirt to use against Joe Biden today."

"The reason he lied about that is because he knows that is incredibly damning," said Cooper. "You can’t even spin 'find me dirt on Joe Biden' as anti-corruption in Ukraine. It’s just, you know — and the president by the way hasn’t done Mulvaney any favors on that by going out again calling for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and China too."

Watch below: