CNN’s Dana Bash THROWS DOWN With Trump Lawyer John Lauro in Fiery 12-Minute Clash on Attempts to Overturn Election: ‘Mike Pence Rejected This Scheme!’

CNN’s Dana Bash and Donald Trump’s attorney John Lauro had a big league showdown as they argued with each other over the former president’s indictment, his orders to Mike Pence, and everything in between.

Lauro joined CNN’s State of the Union to address the fallout from the former president’s latest indictment by special counsel Jack Smith over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Things got off to a tense start when Lauro claimed President Joe Biden’s administration was orchestrating Smith’s investigation, and Bash shot back by pointing to Smith’s independence in his position as special counsel.

“I’m just going to stop you because there’s no evidence that Joe Biden is involved in this,” she told Lauro.

As the discussion moved to the denial of a delay on the prosecution’s protective order request, Bash pressed Lauro on whether he’d legally advise Trump to stop flinging insults at Smith. Lauro answered by resorting to Trump’s free speech defense argument, so Bash confronted him with how former Attorney General Bill Barr recently torpedoed the idea that it shields Trump from being prosecuted over his pursuit of a “fraudulent conspiracy.”

“First of all, there was no fraudulent conspiracy,” Lauro hilariously responded. “What President Trump was entitled to do…[is] when it comes to political speech, you cannot only advocate for a position, but you can take action, you can petition, you can ask even your vice president to pause the vote for a period of time.”

“But you can’t break the law, which is what this indictment alleges,” Bash retorted. She then read from the allegations from the indictment when Lauro demanded she explain how Trump tried to overturn his election defeat.

On Trump’s push to have fake electors certify him as the 2020 victor, Lauro argued that “None of those electors were counted. Vice President Pence was completely aware of the nature of the protest.”

That’s when Bash interjected, “They weren’t counted because Mike Pence rejected this scheme!”

“Of course, and that’s how the political process works!” Lauro responded, to which, Bash shook her head and told him “No it doesn’t!”

The two continued duking it out over what would’ve happened if Pence had gone along with Trump’s attempts to defraud the election, plus Trump’s other actions to make it happen. On the subject of Trump pressing Pence to reject state-certified electoral results on January 6, Lauro argued that “Asking is aspirational. Asking is not action. It’s core free speech.”

The argument eventually led Lauro’s preposterous claim “there was a peaceful transition of power” after Pence refused Trump’s demands not to certify the election results. Bash scoffed at that as she told him “What happened on January 6 was not peaceful,” but Lauro again claimed “The transfer of power was certainly peaceful.”

“Did you see what happened on January 6? Did that look peaceful to you?” Bash asked.

Watch Lauro’s response above via CNN.

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