Law Newz founder Dan Abrams appeared on Good Morning America Tuesday morning to once again debate with Nancy Grace.
This time, they were talking about former Congressman and NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. The disgraced politician destroyed his career and marriage because of salacious texts. Again and again. The third revelation came after he sexted a 15-year-old girl. Prosecutors said he got her to get naked, and touch herself on Skype. Authorities also say he sent her porn. A federal judge sentenced him on Monday to 21 month in prison. Was this a fair sentence?
Abrams pointed out that this was on the “low-end” on the sentencing guideline, but that Weiner had pleaded guilty. He argued that the facts of the case didn’t support the 21 months behind bars.
“If he hadn’t been Anthony Weiner, he’d end up with a lesser sentence,” Abrams said.
Grace did not see it that way.
“For Dan Abrams to say this is not child porn, he [Weiner] asked a girl to strip naked and fondle herself,” she said. Abrams pointed out that no child porn was found on Weiner’s computer. Grace said that the defendant sat and watched the girl touch herself via Skype.
This leads to one of those patented, hard-to-transcribe parts of their debates in which they start to talk over each other. Basically, Grace said the sentence was way too low out of the possible 10-years. Abrams said that the defendants in these sorts of cases never get the full 10 years, even though some get sentences harsher than 21 months.
“Can we agree on something?” Abrams said. “Let’s agree this is really bad. Let’s agree Anthony Weiner deserves prison time.” He argued that fact the defendant pleaded guilty should carry weight. Grace said that didn’t matter.
GMA referee host George Stephanopolous ended the segment there.
[Screengrab via ABC]
