Dan Crenshaw, a Republican congressman from Texas, got into a heated debate with CNN host Chris Cuomo during a back-and-forth on the subject of whether President Donald Trump committed “wrongdoing” by asking the president of Ukraine to look into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.
Crenshaw asked the host why something can’t be both in “public interest” and also good for the president.
Cuomo introduced the topic by trying to force Crenshaw to agree that what the president did was “wrong,” but he shouldn’t be “removed. Crenshaw wouldn’t take the bait. He responded, “I’m not sure I agree with the premise that he’s done something wrong. I understand that there’s a theory about wrongdoing, but the facts don’t back that up.”
Cuomo said, “You don’t think he asked a foreign power to help him with a political opponent?”
Crenshaw pointed out that when Trump asked for the Ukrainian president’s help, it was likely in the interest of the public. He said “our former vice president had a clear conflict of interest with his son being being a board member of a company that was being prosecuted by somebody that the vice president was trying to get fired.”
Cuomo continued to insist that Trump “went after Biden because he thought it would be good for him.”
Crenshaw said, “But you just made an assumption there. You just read his mind, right?”
“That’s a little bit of a game people play in politics,” said Cuomo. “You don’t need to play that kind of game because you have reason on your side here which is ‘I think he had a legitimate public interest.’ Maybe, but it doesn’t have to be his only interest.”
Crenshaw asked Cuomo what the “right answer” would have been if something was both in the interest of the public, but also beneficial to the president.
Cuomo responded, “Under the law — you can look at the FEC guidelines about this — if you have multiple points of interest in something and one of them helps you in the election, you’ve got trouble.”
“Now you’re trying to make this a campaign finance law thing, and that’s a stretch,” Crenshaw shot back. “That’s an enormous – it’s really difficult to make that kind of political leap.”
Cuomo concluded, “Those case do stink and I think the enforcement of them is even worse but this is a conversation the country will have to have and men and women like you of goodwill are gonna have to vote on it.”