Three freed American prisoners were brought home from North Korea Wednesday night, and during the middle-of-the-night ceremony, President Trump thanked North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un for allowing the hostages’ release. 

Who thanked President Trump? Or even showed him an ounce of respect?

Not CNN — as the network followed the goings-on at Andrews Air Force Base, at which the President and the three breathtakingly fortunate Americans were set to arrive, journalist John Vause commented:

“Donald Trump believes that this success in the foreign policy field might be enough, you know, to distract attention away from the Robert Mueller investigation into Russia, the criminal investigation of his own personal attorney, you know, the Stormy Daniels affair.”

The network’s Senior White House Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, tossed in: 

“The Mueller investigation is indeed alive and well. … But the White House officials and supporters of the President actually hope he can focus on something substantive like the release of these three Americans.”

Around 3 a.m., CNN welcomed Phillip Yun, an advisor to Bill Clinton, who condescended toward the President for even being at the base to greet the returning prisoners:

“Well, this is Donald Trump as a…TV moment for him. If nothing else, he knows how to get publicity, how to a bleed a lot of drama.”

Bleed??

Both Zeleny and Vause fretted over the terrible possibility of Donald Trump getting credit for the three’s release:

VAUSE: How soon will it be before we see images these turned around and, you know, put out on social media by the President or some kind of, you know, a campaign message?

ZELENY: I expect before the sun rises, you will see something like that without question. I mean, that is just the fact of life in the social media times certainly this President, you know, certainly aware of the images. I expect his campaign to mention it and he certainly will share this message.

Last but not least, at 6 a.m., morning journalist Will Ripley expressed concern about the exploitation of the freed hostages:

“To see the men put on camera after the isolation they endured, especially Kim. He spent day in, day out in a labor camp, carrying heavy rocks, being fed meals that had bugs in them, according to other people that have been held in North Korean labor camps and described the conditions. To go from that isolation for two and a half years to, you are face-to-face with Donald Trump and you do have dozens of photographers taking your picture, I do worry that they were being exploited a bit.”

Just pitiful.