How insane did this post-Oval Office speech analysis last night on CNN get? John Kasich had to raise his voice to defend Donald Trump in order to pitch over Don Lemon’s absolute meltdown. Kasich at first seemed more inclined to damn Trump with faint praise, but when Kasich offered a positive take on Trump’s tone in discussing the coronavirus, Lemon flipped out, barking at Kasich for defending Trump.

This … is CNN:

Watch @DonLemon have a meltdown over John Kasich not bashing President Trump's Oval Office Address pic.twitter.com/AHrO465eP4

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 12, 2020

By the end of this, Kasich had to wonder why they bothered to invite him on at all. Lemon wasn’t interested in getting an analysis from a two-term governor about the substance or the nuance of the speech; all he wanted was someone to validate his shrieking hysteria over it. Lemon would have been better off going out into the street and collaring a rando for this segment — and Kasich would have been better off, too.

Viewers would be better served, though, if CNN looks at this segment and rethinks its host assignments. Not only did Lemon treat Kasich rudely, his partisan advocacy turned CNN’s coverage of a critically serious topic into a complete joke. If this is how CNN treats coronavirus news, who in their right mind will trust them to cover anything less serious?