Every media pundit on cable news has an opinion on the recent report that the Clinton campaign and the DNC helped fund research for the infamous dossier connecting Donald Trump to the Kremlin. In the Washington Post report, it was revealed that a Clinton campaign lawyer had retained Fusion GPS, who hired a British spy to conduct research on Trump and Russia.
Over at CNN, we had Kirsten Powers and Paul Begala on one side of Anderson Cooper's panel defending Clinton’s campaign, and Mike Shields and Ed Martin on the other suggesting the Dems were guilty of some collusion of their own.
Let the fireworks begin.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hiring someone to do opposition research,” Powers said of the new dossier report.
Democratic strategist Paul Begala agreed. Considering Trump’s vast wealth, why wouldn’t the Clinton campaign want to investigate his past international business deals, he reasoned. It’s “campaign 101.”
Conservative political commentator Ed Martin had a different interpretation.
“Now we know Clinton’s campaign went and worked with the Russians,” he said, a remark that caused Pegala to blow his top.
Mike Shields, another conservative on the panel, noted how the Democrats were "lying for months" about the dossier.
That’s when Powers accused Shields of intentionally misconstruing her words.
“Mike, are you trying to intentionally misunderstand what we said?” she said. “It feels like you are. Let me clarify. There’s a difference between the government — that’s what I said. I don’t think you can work with a foreign government that is trying to influence the election and that’s not what happened. He’s not a spy, he’s actually a retired spy. He was hired to do this opposition research.”
She doesn't, however, defend the Democrats lying about it.
What would raise red flags for Powers, she says, is if the campaign was in talks with a foreign government.
Shields made a final point. Despite several congressional investigations, “there’s been zero evidence of collusion” between Trump and Russia.
