Erin Burnett Shuts Down GOP Congressman Pushing Biden Corruption Spin: ‘No, No, No, That Was Never Said, That Is Not True!’

CNN’s Erin Burnett thoroughly shut down Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin as he tried to push false and misleading talking points about former Vice President Joe Biden’s role in the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor.

Zeldin, appearing on Burnett’s show, repeatedly deflected or tried to change the subject to Biden when asked about the several blockbuster admissions by President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, about soliciting the help from the Ukrainian government to investigate Trump’s potential 2020 rival.

“I don’t want to get into hypotheticals. You can ask me a hundred different versions and no one actually knows what is being alleged,” Zeldin said, when Burnett pressed him on the fact that the White House gave conflicting reasons as to why military aid to Ukraine was delayed by several months. “I have an opportunity as a member of Congress to reserve my judgment on what exactly happened about tomorrow. It’s not like I’m talking about tomorrow. It’s not waiting a month or a year. I get to review what was said in the call. We were able to see a video of Vice President Biden who is specifically stating that he threatened — Biden with his own words, threatened the Ukranian leadership of taking away $1 billion from the Ukraine if they don’t fire their state prosecutor.”

“To be clear, he did that,” Burnett said, before adding key context to knock down Zeldin’s implication. “He was proud to do it and he was in line with — with every Western country in doing so, so in that he was consistent. It he was trying to cover it up he wouldn’t have bragged about it.”

“That prosecutor was investigating his son’s company,” Zeldin began, before Burnett cut in again.

“That prosecutor was not investigating corruption in Ukraine, which is why everyone wanted him out,” Burnett corrected.

When Burnett again pressed Zeldin to comment on the military aid to Ukraine, which Trump personally decided to delay a week before his call with the new Ukrainian president, the GOP Congressman once more tried to pivot back to Biden.

“One last point about the Ukraine prosecutor that was just left out is it’s important to note that that person who was being criticized for being soft on crime was a prosecutor who was prosecuting Biden’s son’s company was paying him $50,000 a month,” Zeldin said.

“From our understanding in the Bloomberg reporting, that investigation was dormant, already dormant when any of this happened. It was not under investigation,” Burnett pointed out.

“But why do we care less? I mean why do not we not care,” Zeldin asked.

“There’s been a lot of reporting on this,” Burnett noted.

“I haven’t seen a lot of reporting on this,” Zeldin replied, implying the media was ignoring a story that Burnett quickly gave numerous examples to the contrary

“Here is the thing,” Zeldin said, before leveling a wholly baseless claim, “if you don’t have any problem whatsoever with the vice president under the direction of, he said, the president of the United States threatening to withhold $1.0 billion if they don’t stop prosecuting his son’s company paying $50,000 a month…”

“You’re making that part up,” Burnett shot back immediately, as Zeldin protested. “No. No, no, no, that was never said, that is not true!” She went on to specifically clarify that Biden never linked withholding the $1 billion to his son’s business dealings in Ukraine. “There is nothing saying that in any way.”

Chastened, Zeldin backed off that false claim and settled for pointing out that the fired Ukrainian state prosecutor had been at one point investigating a company Biden’s son, Hunter, had worked for.

“Again, I’m saying that investigation was already dormant under the guy you are saying [Biden] wanted to get rid of because of something he wasn’t doing,” Burnett noted, rebutting Zeldin’s less overt attempt at intimating corruption on Biden’s part. “That doesn’t add up.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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