During Friday’s edition of Cuomo PrimeTime, host Chris Cuomo engaged in a lengthy exchange with Former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski. At one point, Cuomo said that the “America First Agenda” “smacks of a jingoism and an exclusionary view of humanity that most people don’t want repeated.” Later, he downplayed the Obama administration’s spying on journalists James Rosen and Sharyl Attkisson, saying “I’d rather be spied on legitimately than called an enemy of the people illegitimately.”

The debate began with a focus on The New York Times op-ed written by an anonymous author claiming to have a senior role in the Trump administration; which contains a laundry list of criticisms of the President and his style. Lewandowski argued that the criticisms of President Trump mirror criticisms of President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he argued has gone down as one of the greatest Presidents in American history:

LEWANDOWSKI: The individuals who are attacking Donald Trump today like George Will, when they raised those same issues about Teddy Roosevelt, said he was a hero, he was the greatest, one of the greatest American Presidents. They don’t like Donald Trump because he’s brash, because he’s bold, because he fights for an American first agenda. The American people knew it. He’s unapologetic about it.

Cuomo jumped in, arguing that they don’t like America first agenda because it smacks of a jingoism and an exclusionary view of humanity that people don’t want repeated.” He also seemed to agree with the anonymous author of the New York Times op-ed when he said that the good economy comes “despite his manner,” “despite his divisiveness,” “despite the worries about his constant lying and his competence that people in the White House complain about consistently.”

When Lewandowski praised President Trump for cutting regulations, Cuomo responded: “that’s not an unqualified positive. You’re cutting regulations that could hurt kids’ health, that could hurt air, that could hurt water.” Apparently, he just could not resist the opportunity to paint the Republicans as heartless and evil.

Lewandowski attempted to give Cuomo an “unqualified positive that nobody could disagree with” by pointing out President Trump’s deportation of a Nazi living in Queens, New York. Cuomo responded: “You want me to salute him for deporting a Nazi? Great.” Cuomo quickly resumed attacking the Trump administration: “But then when he gets criticized for taking thousands of children away from their parents, you ignore it. You deny it, or you try to misconstrue it as something else. That’s the problem. It’s not removing the Nazi. It’s cottoning to Nazis. It’s telling white supremacists they’re good people. Deport one? Good. Tell all of them they’re kind of okay? Not good.”

Changing the subject, Lewandowski accused former President Obama of telling a “series of lies” during a speech he gave at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earlier in the day, specifically taking issue with his assertion that he “never attacked Fox News.” Lewandowski brought up the Obama administration’s spying on Fox News Journalist James Rosen as well as CBS News’s Sharyl Attkisson as he attempted to prove that Obama “doesn’t tell the truth” when it comes to his administration’s treatment of journalists.

Cuomo pushed back: “You cannot with a straight face, Corey, say we should care about President Obama lying today when you have made a cottage industry of going on TV to deflect dozens and dozens of lies by this President.” Cuomo continued to lecture Lewandowski: “You can’t with a straight face go at Obama as a liar. You can call him other things that are pejorative. A liar when you represent Donald Trump?”

In Cuomo’s mind, words apparently speak louder than actions. Cuomo did his best to justify the Obama administration’s treatment of Rosen and Attkisson, saying “I’d rather be spied on legitimately than called an enemy of the people illegitimately.” Cuomo dismissed the debate about the Obama administration’s treatment of Rosen and Attkisson as a “silly conversation,” accusing Lewandowski of believing that “if you can pick out something that’s negative about somebody else, you believe it erases what your own administration is doing, what the Trump administration is doing.”

More than a year after he left office, Cuomo and his allies still carry water for President Obama by using “what-aboutism” to sweep any wrongdoing by his administration under the rug. No matter how much Trump allies like Lewandowski try, the left-wing media remains loathe to say a kind word about the Trump administration or give him credit for anything.

A transcript of the relevant portion of Cuomo PrimeTime is below. Click “expand” to read more.