CNN host scolds his own audience, dishes out the truth after they hope DOJ treats Trump unfairly: 'Wrong answer!'

CNN host Michael Smerconish educated his own audience on Saturday after they overwhelmingly approved the Justice Department taking Donald Trump to trial before the 2024 election.

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump's appeal that presidential immunity protects him from criminal prosecution in special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case.

The decision triggered weeping and gnashing of teeth among liberals because the court set oral arguments for the week of April 22. That means the justices will likely not issue a decision until the end of June. And with court proceedings halted until their decision, Trump's trial will not begin until late summer — at the earliest.

That timeline presents a major problem: DOJ policy specifically prohibits interfering in elections and being swayed by political winds, and rushing Trump's trial could run afoul of that long-standing policy.

But apparently CNN viewers don't care about the fairness — indeed, the attention to justice — the policy is meant to uphold.

On Saturday, Smerconish polled his audience on the following question: "Is it appropriate for DOJ to try Trump in the fall of 2024?" With nearly 40,000 votes, 88% of his audience said "yes" it is appropriate for the DOJ to break long-standing policy to prosecute Trump.

The results clearly left Smerconish shocked.

"Oh, come on — come on, guys! Ladies!" Smerconish exclaimed.

"My disappointment is — put that camera on me for a second — it's not that lopsided a question. It is not a 90-percenter. Like, you're making me think that if instead the poll question today was, 'Why don't we just dispense with the trial and move right to the sentencing phase?' That would probably beget 82% of the audience today," he chided.

"No. That's the wrong answer — at least by that margin," he scolded.

Earlier in the show, Smerconish spoke with legal expert Elie Honig, who explained why he is troubled by Smith's rush to bring Trump to trial. He said:

If you look at the actual Justice Manual — now, this is essentially the internal Bible for DOJ; we all have them printed out on our desks — there's a provision in there that says, "Prosecutors should never select the timing of any action — let me say that again, any action — with the election in mind, with the timing of the election in mind."

And it's hard for me to square that with Jack Smith making decisions, asking for trial, asking for everything to be mega-expedited, because even though we won't say it, I don't think anyone would disagree that what's motivating him is the Election Day. So I do think that that violates DOJ's own internal manual.

Educating his audience, Smerconish then used Honig's explanation for why bringing Trump to trial this fall is questionable.

"Elie Honig made an excellent point. If we're up against the clock in concluding the federal prosecutions of Donald Trump, it's not Trump and his lawyers or SCOTUS' fault. It's Merrick Garland's fault because he lollygagged," Smerconish recounted.

"So Trump is doing what any defendant would do in that case, but he'd run out of time if Garland had gotten off the dime. That's the bottom line," he explained.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!