CNN anchor Anderson Cooper tore into commentator Rick Santorum on Wednesday when the former Republican senator tried to defend President Donald Trump’s attempts to get foreign governments to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“As you heard, the President believes, you may not believe it, the President believes there is corruption going on at the very highest levels with certain members of the Democratic Party and in the prior administration,” Santorum said. “And he wants that to be looked into.”
“Him asking China to investigate the Bidens, you’re saying that’s a legitimate thing?” Cooper asked incredulously.
“All I know is that both in the case of Ukraine and the case of China, Hunter Biden, simply because he was the President’s [sic] son, made a boatload of money,” the former GOP senator replied.
“But that’s not all you know,” Cooper said. “What you know is that there’s an election coming up. And you know that Joe Biden is running against the President and you know that this will have an impact on that election.”
The CNN anchor was similarly unimpressed with Santorum’s argument that Trump was right to ask Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and “corruption” because he couldn’t trust the FBI to do so.
“So the President is going to Ukraine because he can’t trust the FBI to investigate the former vice president of the United States?” Cooper asked. “He trusts the corrupt regime of Ukraine, which he says is corrupt?”
“Intellectually, your argument doesn’t make sense,” the CNN reporter told Santorum when the commentator doubled down.
Cooper pointed out that Trump could’ve had plenty of American investigators look into his accusation against the Bidens “if it was legitimate.”
“He knows it’s not legitimate, so he’s going to Ukraine to just say they’re going to investigate,” Cooper said. “He doesn’t care if there’s an investigation.”
Watch the exchange below:
Anderson Cooper asks Rick Santorum incredulously if he’s really saying Trump asking China to investigate Biden is legitimate. pic.twitter.com/mwEUgiKkM2
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 18, 2019
Anderson Cooper rips Rick Santorum’s defense of Trump’s behavior: “Intellectually, your argument doesn’t make sense.” pic.twitter.com/V5Dkqnw8jE
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 18, 2019
