He's a liberal, but Elie Honig has established himself as CNN's leading legal iconoclast. He has a history, as we recently described it, of "throwing cold water on the fever dreams of the left."
Honig was back at it on this morning's New Day, tearing into Stacey Abrams and Fulton County DA Fani Willis regarding Willis' investigation into possible 2020 election interference, and Abrams' comments on it.
Honig began by reacting to a clip of Abrams' interview with Erin Burnett on her CNN show of last night. Abrams, commenting on Willis' subpoena of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp—Abrams's opponent in this November's gubernatorial election—sided with Willis.
Abrams said:
"I know that this has been a meticulous and very thoughtful investigation and that he is not the only Republican who has tried to skirt his responsibility to provide information."
Honig exploded in response:
ELIE HONIG: So, I did a double take when I heard that last night on Erin Burnett's show. And Stacey Abrams said the same thing later in the show—she said it twice: 'this is a meticulous investigation by the DA's office.'
How on earth would Stacey Abrams know that? Stacey Abrams is a civilian, no different than any of us. She's not a public official, she not part of the prosecutor's office. So, there's two possibilities here. One, which I hope it's not--it better not be--is she's being briefed on this behind the scenes by the prosecutor's office. That would be wildly inappropriate, all sorts of crossed wires, politics and prosecution.
The other is, she made it up!
There's sort of a middle ground here, where she's rooting for this investigation. And let's keep in mind: Brian Kemp, her upcoming opponent in the gubernatorial race, has received a subpoena. He's now in a battle with Fani Willis.
And to me, this sort of underscores it. There are real political problems going on here. And we're starting to see politics infect this investigation. Not long ago, a judge in Georgia disqualified Fani Willis from one of her subpoenas. He said, you have a political conflict interest. He said something along the lines of, 'I don't know what you were thinking.'
She had done a fundraiser for the political opponent of someone who she had subpoenaed.
Honig also rejected Willis's argument that Kemp was stalling the process, pointing out that Willis took a year-and-a-half to seat a grand jury, not doing so until close to the election, whereas Kemp had only been served with the subpoena three weeks ago.
When co-host Brianna Keilar and analyst Errol Louis took over, you would normally have expected them to rise to the defense of Willis and Abrams. But amazingly, they didn't. Keilar questioned the "legitimacy" of Willis' investigation, suggesting it has become "politicized."
Louis acknowledged that "Kemp has a point," and that the "integrity" of Willis' investigation "has to be questioned." He concluded by suggesting that Willis has "bitten off more than she can chew."
Even the show's producer got into the spirit, displaying a chyron reading, "Is Georgia Election Probe Being Politicized as Midterms Loom?"
What might have precipitated this sudden onset of objectivity from Keilar and Louis, whose views, normally, are reliably liberal? Might they have heard the glass shattering as Brian Stelter was sent packing yesterday? Are they making a last-ditch display of evenhandedness, hoping to avoid being next up on CNN honcho Chris Licht's chopping block?
Note: panelist Alexis Hoag didn't have an opportunity to respond to Honig's take. But judging from her facial expressions, it would appear that she was less than enthused. Not surprising, considering that Hoag, a professor at the Brooklyn Law School, is an advocate of, and teaches a seminar in, "prison abolition."
On CNN's New Day, Elie Honig's legal iconoclasm was sponsored in part by Sleep Number, Bayer, maker of Astepro, Skechers, Whole Foods, and Carvana.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
8/10/22
6:10 am EDTJOHN BERMAN: I want to bring up a different investigation. This is in Georgia, where the Fulton County DA, Fani Willis, is looking into Donald Trump, and people associated with their efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia.
The Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp, has been subpoenaed to appear before this grand jury. He's fighting that subpoena. He doesn't want do it because he says at this point, this investigation is political, and it's pretty close to his reelection battle. His I opponent, Stacey Abrams, talked about this last night. Let's listen to what she said.
STACEY ABRAMS: If you look at the emails that have been released about the back-and-forth, and having dealt with the Kemp administration, I would actually put my faith more in the Fulton County DA's office. I know that this has been a meticulous and very thoughtful investigation, and that he is not the only Republican who's tried to skirt his responsibility to provide to information.
BERMAN: Elie?
ELIE HONIG: So, I did a double take when I heard that last night on Erin Burnett's show. And Stacey Abrams said the same thing later in the show—she said it twice: 'this is a meticulous investigation by the DA's office.'
How on earth would Stacey Abrams know that? Stacey Abrams is a civilian, no different than any of us. She's not a public official, she not part of the prosecutor's office. So, there's two possibilities here. One, which I hope it's not--it better not be--is she's being briefed on this behind the scenes by the prosecutor's office. That would be wildly inappropriate, all sorts of crossed wires, politics and prosecution.
The other is, she made it up!
There's sort of a middle ground here, where she's rooting for this investigation. And let's keep in mind: Brian Kemp, her upcoming opponent in the gubernatorial race, has received a subpoena. He's now in a battle with Fani Willis.
And to me, this sort of underscores it. There are real political problems going on here. And we're starting to see politics infect this investigation. Not long ago, a judge in Georgia disqualified Fani Willis from one of her subpoenas. He said, you have a political conflict interest. He said something along the lines of, 'I don't know what you were thinking.'
She had done a fundraiser for the political opponent of someone who she had subpoenaed.
And now when it comes to Brian Kemp, Kemp's argument is, you the DA have politicized this by waiting so long. And the fact is--the DA shot back hard--but the reality is the DA took a year-and-a-half, from January -- this tape, the Raffenspger tape came out in January of 2021 -- until this summer to seat a grand jury. A couple months before that election.
Now, Fani Willis says, you're the one stalling, Brian Kemp. He got subpoenaed three weeks ago! So, who's more to blame here, the year-and-a-half delay, or the three-week resistance?
BRIANNA KEILAR: That comes down to, this investigation, is the legitimacy of it threatened here? Is it politicized? Whatever the outcome, are there going to be questions around it?
ERROL LOUIS: Well, there're going to be questions. I mean, it's grinding to a halt, frankly. And this is, look, this is part of what comes from having elected prosecutors, right? I mean, there are other systems around the world where they don't do it this way.
But for Fani Willis to go to a fundraiser, which is what an elected official does, that's sort of her night job. Meanwhile, the day job is now going to be sort of imperiled, in part because the integrity of it can't -- I mean, it has to be questioned. So, look, Brian Kemp has a point. Some of this could be negotiated. One would hope that all of these public servants, who, after all, the taxpayers are funding their salaries, that they would sit down with a bunch of lawyers, and they would say, look, this is what we'll do, this is what we're not going to do. This is what we'll talk about, what information do need? Maybe we'll do written interrogatories.
But you've got to make sure that the investigation, which is more important than any of these individual officials, is done properly. You know, there's something really serious here. This fake electors scheme, the president's lawyer being deposed, the sitting governor being subpoenaed. It's really, really serious stuff.
I think Fani Willis may have bitren off more than she could chew.
