CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin: Trump Defenders’ Efforts ‘Increasingly Futile’

Thursday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” network chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said President Donald Trump’s defenders’ efforts “were increasingly futile.”

Toobin said, “One of the strange things about President Trump is that nobody has ever seen him laugh, like a full laugh on camera. Think about it. You never see it. And this notion of explaining crazy things he says as jokes is not — that is just not true. He does not joke. When he said ‘Russia, you know, I want you to find Hillary Clinton’s emails,’ they tried to explain it as a joke. It wasn’t. Russia went right to work trying to find Hillary’s emails.”

Guest host Brianna Keilar asked, “Maybe not a joke, but is it about provocation. Is it truly serious you think?”

Toobin said, “Yes, I think when he looks up at the sky and says ‘I am the chosen one,’ I think what he meant is ‘I am the chosen one.’ This Messianic, narcissistic approach to life, that is the way he has always been. The idea to explain it away as he is just joking, no, he is not. This is what he thinks. This is how he behaves. You know, the idea that somehow it will change or there will be adults in the room, it is all crazy. I mean, you know, he is who he is, and efforts to explain that he is not really the way that he is are increasingly futile.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN