CNN’s Berman Mocks Rick Santorum’s Claim Trump Wasn’t Asking Ukraine for a Favor When He Said ‘Do Us a Favor’
CNN anchor John Berman openly mocked former Senator and current CNN commentator Rick Santorum for claiming that President Donald Trump was not asking for a favor when he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “I would like you to do us a favor though.”
On Friday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, Berman was joined by Santorum and former Congressman Charlie Dent to discuss the articles of impeachment that are currently being drafted in the House of Representatives.
During that discussion, Berman made the mistake of asking “Do we all agree sitting at this table that the rough notes, that the transcript of this call exists, and we can agree what happened on that phone call? Yes?”
“No, I don’t think we can, because I don’t think what the president did was ask for a favor, I think those are two different things,” Santorum said.
“When he said ‘I want you to do us a favor though,’ that sounds to me like asking for a favor,” an incredulous Berman said, and asked “What about asking for a favor doesn’t sound like asking for a favor?”
“Yeah he did, and he talked about the Crowdstrike, and then the president talked to, the president of Ukraine talked, and then, who brought up Giuliani / Biden, and that’s when the president responded, so I think that’s they are two different things,” Santorum said, falsely. It was Trump who first referenced the Bidens, multiple times.
“I know some people don’t read it that way, I do, I don’t think the president was asking for a favor,” Santorum added.
“He said ‘I want you to do us a favor, though,'” Berman said. “If someone asks me for a favor, I typically think they want a favor.”
“He said ‘us’ and he talked about the country and he said I’m concerned about corruption and how it might affect the U.S. elections, and he talked about 2016. That’s what he talked about,” Santorum said, falsely. The word “corruption” was never uttered during the call.
“But he asked for the favor after Zelensky made a request for the javelins, the anti-tank weapons,” Dent pointed out.
Santorum continued to insist that the military aid and the Biden investigation “are two different conversations, they’re two different points,” and said “I think it was inappropriate to mention Bidens but I don’t think it was an ask for a favor.”
After another minute of this, Berman pointed out that it was “the president himself who said ‘I want the president of Ukraine, if I were the president of Ukraine I would investigate the Bidens,’ there’s no ambiguity there, the president said it out loud, and then he asked China to do it. He just did. He asked for it.”
“I agree, I think that’s inappropriate, I don’t think it’s impeachable,” Santorum said.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
