CNN Panelists Spar Over Trump ‘Flip Flopping’ on Gov. Kemp: ‘That’s Nonsense!’

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and CNN commentator Maria Cardona sparred on Friday as the latter accused former President Donald Trump of flip flopping on Gov. Brian Kemp (R) after the two appeared together this week despite their past frictions.

Trump joined Kemp on Friday for an event focused on recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene . The former president has called Kemp “disloyal” in the past, accusing the governor of not doing enough to back up his claims of fraudulence in the 2020 presidential election results, particularly from states like Georgia. No actual proof has been found of the widespread fraud Trump consistently references.

Pawlenty and Cardona joined CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday to discuss Trump suddenly embracing Kemp, which Pawlenty dismissed as politics-as-usual.

The former governor argued:

“If flip-flopping or changing positions were a disqualifying factor for candidates, we’d have no one to serve in Congress and no one to run for president or vice president so let’s be clear about that. This is just one example of political expediency all over the board but it unfolds in the context of a crisis post-hurricane where genuinely Gov. Kemp needs help and empathy and understanding from national leaders, including former President Trump. And so those comments I think in that context were real, but let’s not kid ourselves. Vice president Harris has flip flopped on a bunch of important stuff. Most of them do and it’s just what they do, they’re politicians.”

Cardona meanwhile said the flip flop is so drastic that it eclipses other political turns. She accused Trump of existing in his own stratosphere when it comes to changing positions.

“I’m sorry. There is no one that flip-flops on a personal level like Donald Trump. He is saying these great things about Gov. Kemp today. I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow he is back at calling him a coward and a traitor if he doesn’t think that governor Kemp is doing what Donald Trump wants him to do,” she said. “There is no one at that stratospheric level of not just flip-flopping, but of utter insulting and using people for their own self-interests. So I just had to underscore that.”

Pawlenty attempted to cut in to bring up a tense moment between President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a 2019 debate before they were on the same ticket, but Cardona continued.

“Let’s be very clear. Nothing will change with his base, right? He was very clear from the beginning. He could go shoot somebody on Fifth avenue and his base will never leave him. But Georgia and all of these other swing states have people that he needs to bring into the tent that he is not doing. He is not going to bring in independents, suburban voters, he’s not going to bring in people who are undecided with the kind of hypocrisy that he is using now towards Gov. Kemp,” she said.

Pawlenty called Cardona’s argument “nonsense” and “BS.” He finished his reference, accusing Harris of making just such a drastic change in her position when she became Biden’s VP after painting him as “racially insensitive” during their debate.

At the debate in question, Harris made clear she did not think Biden was a racist, but she did knock him over his past relationship to segregationists.

“That’s nonsense,” Pawlenty said. “I mean, you look at vice president Harris’s comments over the arc of time, including implying in a presidential debate in ’20, the last time Biden and her were on the stage together, implying President Biden might be racially insensitive and then it turns out to be his vice president so that’s a bunch of BS.”

“Come on, governor. It’s not the same thing, absolutely not the same thing, and you know it,” Cardona shot back.

Check out the exchange below:

TIM PAWLENTY: “If flip-flopping or changing positions were a disqualifying factor for candidates, we’d have no one to serve in Congress and no one to run for president or vice president so let’s be clear about that. This is just one example of political expediency all over the board but it unfolds in the context of a crisis post-hurricane where genuinely Gov. Kemp needs help and empathy and understanding from national leaders, including former President Trump. And so those comments I think in that context were real, but let’s not kid ourselves. Vice president Harris has flip flopped on a bunch of important stuff. Most of them do and it’s just what they do, they’re politicians.”

ERIN BURNETT: “Well, okay, I think we can all acknowledge that. But, of course, when it’s about a person and it’s personal, you know, people care about people, people remember those things and can be very specific. Maria, it’s one thing to say that maybe the Trump base won’t buy this sudden love of Kemp. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But it’s interesting, I think you believe that this could actually be bad for Trump, that it could hurt him to now have been so friendly to Kemp. How come? Why would that be?

MARIA CARDONA: “First of all, let me just say, there’s no both-sidesing this issue. I’m sorry. There is no one that flip-flops on a personal level like Donald Trump. He is saying these great things about Gov. Kemp today. I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow he is back at calling him a coward and a traitor if he doesn’t think that governor Kemp is doing what Donald Trump wants him to do. There is no one at that stratospheric level of not just flip-flopping, but of utter insulting and using people for their own self-interests. So I just had to underscore that. Let’s be very clear. Nothing will change with his base, right? He was very clear from the beginning. He could go shoot somebody on Fifth avenue and his base will never leave him. But Georgia and all of these other swing states have people that he needs to bring into the tent that he is not doing. He is not going to bring in independents, suburban voters, he’s not going to bring in people who are undecided with the kind of hypocrisy that he is using now towards Gov. Kemp.”

PAWLENTY: “That’s nonsense. I mean, you look at vice president Harris’s comments over the arc of time, including implying in a presidential debate in ’20, the last time Biden and her were on the stage together, implying President Biden might be racially insensitive and then it turns out to be his vice president so that’s a bunch of BS.”

CARDONA: “Come on, governor. It’s not the same thing, absolutely not the same thing, and you know it.”

Watch above via CNN .