Ex-Trump aide's words turned against him in fiery debate: 'Mike and I will have it out'

CNN's Audie Cornish busted a former Donald Trump official's chops for arguing that most elected leaders tend to moderate once they gain power, despite the obvious counterexample of the president he once served.

Panelists on "CNN This Morning" were discussing this week's primary election wins by left-leaning Democrats and what that means for Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) political future, and former White House communications director Mike Dubke suggested that she would likely move toward the center to govern if she ran for higher office.

"Well, you have to get things done and then, when you want more power and more national power," Dubke said, "you have to moderate in order to appeal to more than just a very small –"

"Is that what you learned in the Trump One White House?" Cornish interrupted.

"Which part?" Dubke asked.

"Moderating once you get in office," Cornish replied. "We literally just talked about the guy kicking a housing bill to the curb because he couldn't get his more extreme version of a voting bill. What's moderate about Trump now?"

"We talked about kicking a housing bill to the curb that is going to pass anyway," Dubke asserted.

"Not to him," Cornish retorted. "You're implying that once you start governing, you become more moderate. I'm arguing that the left looks at Trump and they don't see that, and they want one of their own."

"I'm making the argument that when you campaign on being an extremist, on either the far left or the far right," Dubke insisted. "But you want to gain in national prominence, you tend to moderate. I'm going back to the AOC example. That has nothing to do with governing, that has everything to do with what your national ambitions are, and that was the point that I'm trying to make."

"Did Trump moderate?" Cornish pressed.

"Trump started at the top," Dubke responded.

"So he didn't have to?" Cornish interjected. "Help me understand. Did Trump moderate once he started governing?"

"In many ways, yes, in many ways a lot of what he has put forward has not become, has not become law, a lot of the things we've talked about," Dubke stammered.

"Of his own volition?" Cornish asked. "Or courts and the lawmakers?"

"Both," Dubke said. "Both."

"Okay," Cornish said, ushering the segment to a commercial break. "We're going to – no, no, let me pause. We have actually an actual moderate who has to run in a race in Michigan, and we're going to ask them questions directly. Mike and I will have it out during the break."

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