CNN host, Dr. Phil disagree over Trump trial: ‘I don’t understand how you can say that’

CNN’s Abby Phillip and “Dr. Phil” McGraw disagreed over former President Trump’s hush money trial on air Thursday evening, with the host eventually saying she doesn’t understand how he came to his opinion.

McGraw joined Phillip shortly after sitting for an interview with Trump where they discussed the specifics of the former president’s trial, just a week after the guilty verdict was handed down.

“You’re clearly sympathetic to Trump, but you believe that he should drop this talk of revenge. Did he commit to not pursuing that if he was elected president?” Phillip asked about their interview.

McGraw answered by saying he would be sympathetic to President Biden, too, if he was the one in that situation.

“Well, first of all, I’m sympathetic to what Trump has gone through in this particular trial, because I think it was not proper due process for him,” McGraw responded. “I would say the same thing if was Biden or anyone else in that 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, the proceedings — we have reporters in there; I was in there for a lot of it. There was a judge and he adjudicated a lot of these questions,” Phillip said. “Why do you think he wasn’t given a fair process?”

“Well, I think it’s a number of things. I think they’re, from a jury standpoint. And again, let me be clear: I’m not a lawyer. I look at it in terms of what the jury was given to solve this puzzle,” he said. “And I think they heard some things that were very prejudicial that had nothing to do with solving the problem of the case at hand.”

McGraw continued, hinting that Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, testifying in the case as “someone that is considered to be an accomplice” is not appropriate.

Cohen, a star witness in the case, paid porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 election about her alleged affair with Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance charges and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Phillips responded, saying it’s not uncommon for accomplices to testify in subsequent trials for their alleged co-conspirators.

“That’s kind of how a lot of these prosecutions work,” she said.

McGraw responded by pressing Phillip to give him examples of when that has been considered appropriate. She said prosecutors are working to prosecute organized crime “all the time” and rely on co-conspirators often.

“I just, I don’t understand how you can say that because someone … was not prosecuted, that signed a nonprosecution agreement … that information or their testimony cannot be presented before the jury if they were a part of the alleged crime,” Phillip continued.

The host pressed McGraw if he was saying Cohen should not have been allowed to testify in Trump’s trial.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I said what I said. I think the fact that he made an agreement to say that he is guilty of the crime that the defendant is being tried for prejudices the jury that ‘Hey, here’s someone that’s supposedly an accomplice that has said, I’m guilty of this,’” McGraw said. “That prejudices a jury about the person that’s currently on trial for the same crime.”

Phillip disagreed, noting Cohen was not charged with and prosecuted for falsifying business records, as Trump was.

Phillip then attempted to steer the conversation back toward McGraw’s recent interview with Trump.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.