New York Times columnist Charles Blow on Wednesday explained to Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany that there was no contest between the candidates when it comes to honesty because, he argued, "Donald Trump is a pathological liar."
CNN host Chris Cuomo introduced a segment about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's "controversies" by noting that the network had given equal time to Trump's scandals.
McEnany pointed to Clinton's "remarkable lack of transparency" as a reason that voters should choose Trump.
Blow shot back that Trump was a flawed advocate for transparency because he had refused to release his tax returns.
"I don't think that it holds water," Blow insisted. "If she is, in fact, that criminal who has been investigated for 25 years, she's the best criminal ever. Right? Because none of this sticks."
"Trying to make these kind of equal issues that Donald Trump is a pathological liar," he continued, noting that CNN recently aired documentaries about both candidates. "One, you see a public servant over a lifetime, which is what Hillary Clinton's was. And with Donald Trump, you literally saw a pathological liar."
"From the moment he started to run and was introduced to the public, every one of his business deals was shady. From the very beginning! And I sat there thinking to myself, this is a pathological liar."
McEnany shifted the argument back the Clinton's private email server.
"She said that she could not recall if she owned a flip phone," McEnany charged. "I'm sure the American public can recall if they owned a flip phone over a period of eight years. These are remarkable statements of, I guess, incompetence or outright deceit."
"I do see a pathological liar," Blow shot back. "I genuinely believe that he is fundamentally and uniquely unqualified to be president, that there is something really wrong with the character of that man."
The New York Times columnist asserted that the media had created a "false equivalency."
"All politicians lie," he observed. "His relationship to the truth is just a different level of lies."
Clearly frustrated, McEnany pivoted to the terrorist attack in Benghazi.
"You have two Benghazi families coming out and they claim she told them it was about a video," McEnany opined. "You're going to ask me whose word I take? Someone who has been caught in a lie time and time again or two Benghazi families? I'm going to err with the Benghazi families."
"That is part of what you do," Blow replied. "Donald Trump should never be president of the United States. He's a pathological liar. It's just the truth. If you look at the fact checkers of all the things he's said, the number of times they have caught him lying is off the charts."
