During a panel discussion on Michael Cohen‘s public testimony in front of Congress on Wednesday, CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin slammed Rick Santorum for his attempt to defend President Donald Trump’s Russia lies.

“I want to pick up on a conversation that Senator Santorum and Carl Bernstein were having before the break, questioning why people in the Trump orbit continue to lie about Russia. I mean, does it — is there an explanation for you in this?” host Anderson Cooper prompted.

“Well, I guess the point I was trying to make to Carl is, the president doesn’t tell the truth about a lot of things fairly consistently,” Santorum attempted.  “And so the fact that he’s not telling the truth about Russia fairly consistently, at least in the eyes of people around here, why is that any different?”

Then, digging in, he continued on: “I mean, it’s not like he’s doing something out of character with the Russia investigation that he’s not doing in any other areas. So that’s — so you make the point, oh, he lies about Russia all time. Well, according to what I hear on this roundtable and the network, he  lies about everything all the time.”

Toobin was not buying it — at all.

“Is that really — is that really the best defense you can come up with?” Toobin pressed.

“No, but –” Santorum began.

“Well, he lies about everything, your honor!” Toobin mocked.

“No, wait, stop,” Santorum said, before attempting to explain again.

“What he’s saying is and the argument is, is that he’s acting differently here than he is otherwise,” Santorum argued. “I’m not saying any of it’s good, but the point is, he’s not acting differently.”

Bernstein then countered that not all of Trump’s lies are the same despite Santorum’s claims.

“There’s a real specificity to his lying about Russia…There’s a specificity to almost all of the lies that try to contradict whatever that day’s breaking news is, very specifically.”

Watch above, via CNN

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