CNN never ceases to disappoint when it comes to the sheer levels of ridiculous, partisan hyperbole.

Former White House “ethics lawyer” Richard Painter made an appearance on Friday to instill his wisdom to the masses (or at least CNN’s meager audience) on the current impeachment argument between the House and Senate. In a rare show of civility, he explained with great levity exactly what was holding up the process and…

lol…just kidding, he invoked the KKK.

“For Mitch McConnell to say he’s working with the White House, coordinating with the defendant in this trial before the trial has even begun is atrocious. He may think he’s a judge impaneling an all-white jury for a Klansman trial in Mississippi in 1965. That’s not the kind of trial we have.”

Actually, the kind of trial we have is whatever the majority chooses to have. That’s because, as we’ve all been assured over and over, impeachment is a political process. Want to know how I know? Because even Chuck Schumer admitted that back in 1999.

“We have a pre-opinion,” Schumer said, citing himself and two newly-elected Republican senators who had voted on impeachment in 1998 as members of the House of Representatives who said they would vote in the Senate. “This is not a criminal trial, but this is something that the Founding Fathers decided to put in a body that was susceptible to the whims of politics.”

“So therefore, anybody taking an oath tomorrow can have a pre-opinion; it’s not a jury box,” King asked Schumer.

Senators are not impartial and never will be. None of the founding fathers would have been stupid enough to think such and the intention of the oath they take is to honor the legalities involved in the process, not to magically become brainwashed jurors with no biases.

Painter’s analogy doesn’t even make sense. McConnell’s coordination with the White House is standard fare (it happened in Clinton’s impeachment as well). The Senate has to work with the President in order to allow him to present his defense as he sees fit. That’s a basic right of the accused. If Trump wants to call witnesses, he can. If he doesn’t want to, it is not McConnell’s job to call witnesses anymore than a juror in a court room calls witnesses. It’s certainly not his job to do the investigative work for the prosecution (i.e. the Democrat House).

For Painter’s part, he’s the epitome of the dumpster fire that constantly burns in the nation’s capital. He’s another glorious alum of the Bush administration, later heading up the left-wing CREW, which fancies itself a “non-partisan ethics watchdog.” If you’ve heard Painter’s name before, it’s probably because of his failed push to sue Trump over the Emoluments Clause.

But this is the kind of idiocy CNN happily hosts every hour they manage to be on the air. Meanwhile, Tim Scott, Ted Cruz, and several others will be shocked to learn they are just white guys sent to clear the evil orange klansman.