CNN’s Abby Phillip and Dr. Phil McGraw disagreed over former President Trump’s trial, which aired Thursday night, resulting in the host saying she doesn’t understand how he came to that opinion.
McGraw joined Phillip shortly after an interview with Trump where they discussed the details of the former president’s trial, just a week after the guilty verdict was handed down.
“You clearly sympathize with Trump, but believe he should drop this revenge talk. Did he commit not to do this if he were elected president?” Phillip asked about their interview.
McGraw responded by saying he would also sympathize with President Biden if he were the one in this situation.
“Well, first of all, I sympathize with what Trump went through in this particular trial because I think it wasn’t proper due process for him,” McGraw responded. “I would say the same thing if Biden or anyone else were in this process. So I want to be clear.”
Phillip then pressed the famous talk show therapist, asking why he thought Trump didn’t get due process in the criminal case that resulted in his historic conviction.
“I mean, in the process, we have reporters there, I was there for a lot of it. There was a judge and he ruled on a lot of these issues,” Phillip said. “Why do you think he didn’t receive a fair process?”
“Well, I think it’s a number of things. I think they are from the jury’s point of view. And again, let me be clear: I am not a lawyer. I look at it in terms of what the jury was given to solve this puzzle,” he said in response. “And I think they heard some very damaging things that had nothing to do with resolving the issue at hand.”
McGraw continued, insinuating that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen testifying in the case as “someone who is considered an accomplice” is not appropriate.
Cohen, one of the case’s key witnesses, paid adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep silent about her alleged affair with Trump before the 2016 election. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance charges and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Phillips responded, saying it is not uncommon for accomplices to testify in subsequent trials of their alleged co-conspirators.
“That’s how a lot of these processes work,” she said.
McGraw responded by pressing Phillip to give him examples of when this was considered appropriate. She said prosecutors are working to prosecute organized crime “all the time” and often rely on co-conspirators.
“I just don’t understand how you can say that because someone…has not been prosecuted, who has signed a non-prosecution agreement…that information or his testimony cannot be presented to the jury if he was part of the alleged crime,” Philip continued.
The host pressed McGraw on whether he said Cohen should not have been allowed to testify at Trump’s trial.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I said what I said. I think the fact that he made a deal to say that he is guilty of the crime that the defendant is on trial for prejudices the jury that ‘Hey, here’s someone who is allegedly an accomplice who said, I’m guilty of this,’” McGraw said. “It biases the jury toward the person who is currently on trial for the same crime.”
Phillip disagreed, noting that Cohen was not charged and prosecuted for falsifying business records as Trump did.
Phillip then tried to steer the conversation toward McGraw’s recent interview with Trump.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
