Oh, the trials of being a hack for President Trump. I get why cable stations give contracts to people who are likely to support a given ideology, even a particular politician. Lately, however, it seems as though there are contracted pundits on all the major networks who behave as though their contract spells out they must be partisan stooges.

There is no better example of that than Jeffrey Lord. Lord is no stranger to Republican politics having worked in the Reagan administration and with the conservative luminary, Jack Kemp. He decided at some point to jump on the Trump Train, and that’s his prerogative. It’s watching Lord defend Donald Trump’s every move, no matter how ridiculous that makes it cringeworthy to watch when he’s on television. CNN hired Lord to look at issues from the perspective of a Trump supporter, but the fact is, Lord engages in the worst kind of partisanship that makes roundtable discussions somewhat tedious to watch.

Don’t get me wrong. There are Democratic equivalents of Lord who are hacks as well. However, as a conservative, I expect that kind of thing from Democrats. Lord’s latest foray into Trump apologia stems from Trump’s ill-advised tweets about the terrorist attacks in London where he took aim at London Mayor Sadiq Khan. There’s no reason for finger-pointing, but Trump couldn’t help himself as he’s probably still miffed at Khan criticizing his comments about Muslims while he was candidate Trump.

In an appearance with Anderson Cooper, Lord, in making sure he remained faithful to The Donald, agreed that it’s fair if a foreign leader criticized Rudy Giuliani after the 9/11 attacks. Skip to 1:05 in the video to see it:

This is unreal. @realJeffreyLord blaming Rudy Giuliani for 911 in order to defend Trump. pic.twitter.com/9SeokCQFGh

— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) June 6, 2017

It is a case of the worst kind of political pandering. It wouldn’t have been difficult for Lord to say, “Yes, I agree. The president should have tweeted support and condolences, and that’s it.”

But when you’re a paid political hack, going to the well is what’s expected, even if it makes you look like a jackass.