During a CNN appearance on Tuesday night, former Trump campaign senior economic adviser Stephen Moore tried to downplay adult film star Stormy Daniels’ new lawsuit to nullify an nondisclosure agreement surrounding a sexual relationship she says she had with Donald Trump. It did not go well.

After Republican strategist Kevin Madden said that “the fact that we’re even having this conversation should probably register on the Richter scale, that we’re discussing a sitting president being sued by a porn star,” Moore tried to dismiss Daniels as nothing more than an attention-seeker.

“Kevin, are you saying that a porn star would actually try to draw attention to herself? Shocking!”

A very awkward silence ensued.

Host Don Lemon then said to Moore, “that’s your only response, Stephen, is that a porn star is trying to [get] attention? A porn star with a very lengthy complaint from California. I mean, it’s $130,000 payout confirmed from the president’s personal attorney.”

Moore then tried to argue that the matter had already been litigated by the voters who elected Trump president.

“Look, I don’t have any idea what went on, my only point is that are we really, I mean, a porn star?” he said. “You know, who knows what Donald Trump did 10 years ago, but look — wasn’t this litigated during the campaign when all these women came forward? And, you know, people knew about this when they voted for Donald Trump, and he still won.”


But as Lemon pointed out, voters didn’t have the opportunity to learn about Trump’s affair with Daniels — an affair that began a year after he married Melania, and the same year as his youngest son Barron was born — because of the $130,000 settlement.

“No, we didn’t learn about it because of the hush money — he paid her to be quiet so nobody knew about it until now,” Lemon said.

But Moore argued that nobody should be surprised to learn that Trump had an affair, and anyway, Democratic presidents have done it too.

“I think people know that trump had had some women, and gee, who would’ve ever thought we’d have a president that had sex out of marriage, i mean, certainly not Bill Clinton or John F. Kennedy, right?”

As Lemon pointed out, however, no other president has had an affair with an adult film star, and then paid her money to stay quiet about it just weeks before an election.

Finally, Moore was left speechless.

“I don’t know what to say about it,” he said. “My point was, Don, that people knew that there were women in Donald Trump’s past and people got past it, and this is something that happened 10 years ago. I don’t think the American people really care about that, they care about jobs, the economy, you know, how the country is doing.”


While Moore may not believe that the American public cares about what happened between Trump and Daniels, Daniels’ attorney disagrees.

During a Wednesday morning appearance on Today, Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, said that his client is “looking to disclose the truth about what happened.”

“At this point, in light of the amount of misinformation that Mr. Cohen has put out there to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and others, I think it’s time for her to tell her story and for the public to decide who’s telling the truth,” he said.

Avenatti went on to raise questions about whether the $130,000 payment Daniels received came from the account of Trump’s personal attorney or somewhere else. Watchdog groups have raised concerns that the hush money payment to Daniels may have violated campaign finance laws.

“We think it’s highly questionable as to whether it came from his personal funds,” Avenatti said. “The idea that an attorney would go off on his own, without his client’s knowledge, engage in this type of negotiation, and enter in this type of agreement quite honestly I think is ludicrous.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that there was a delay in sending the payment when Cohen had issues contacting Trump. After the election, “Cohen complained to friends that he had yet to be reimbursed for the payment to Ms. Clifford.”