Via Newsbusters, so this is where we are in early 2018. Democrats sticking up for Trump because even they can’t stomach the extent of CNN’s bias on Trump and Russia anymore.

Right, I know. Technically Angus King is an independent. So’s Bernie Sanders. Whatever.

King’s quibble with Chris Cuomo here is over the forcefulness of POTUS’s response to the Skripal poisoning. Somehow, despite Nikki Haley going ballistic on Russia at the UN, despite a strong statement of solidarity with the UK, despite Trump himself laying blame for the attack at Russia’s feet, and despite the White House finally slapping sanctions on Moscow today for their campaign meddling in 2016, Cuomo’s still suspicious. In fact, for good measure, the administration revealed this morning that Russia’s been messing around inside the U.S. power grid since at least 2015, another blow to relations with the Kremlin. I’m a Trump critic in many things but the last few days seem to me to be the strongest sustained rebuke to Russia by the U.S. of Trump’s presidency so far, an encouraging development objectively. If you insist on looking past all of that and zeroing in on whether or not he personally criticized Putin, maybe you’re more interested in scoring a point than on what the policy is.

And I’ve got a hunch that if Trump had criticized Putin personally but had skipped all the rest — the Haley statement, the expressions of solidarity with Britain, the sanctions — we’d be hearing, “Sure, he knocked Putin, but is that it? Where’s the strong rebuke at the UN and the support for the UK and the sanctions?”

In case you hadn’t heard, Cuomo will soon be CNN’s new man in primetime opposite Hannity and Maddow. “I have huge respect for their success,” he said to Variety of the two. “But the point is, I don’t know where their partisan fights are getting us.” Thankfully we can look forward to his straight-down-the-middle take at 9 p.m. going forward.