Fmr GOP Rep. Sean Duffy Says It Out Loud During Impeachment Clash With Chris Cuomo: ‘We Disagree on the Facts’

Former Republican Congressman and CNN contributor Sean Duffy blurted out a telling admission during his clash with Chris Cuomo over President Donald Trump’s impeachment, telling the CNN host: “We disagree on the facts.”

The two got into an extensive, animated back-and-forth on Friday evening over Trump’s upcoming Senate trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Cuomo began by pointing to the large tranche of documents and text messages, as well as numerous claims, provided by close Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who has been indicted on four counts of campaign finance violations. The latest batch of Parnas documents, the CNN host noted, now further implicates House Intel Ranking Member Devin Nunes in the Ukraine plot.

Duffy, though, tried to repeatedly push back on the Parnas revelations and other documentary evidence with classic attempts at whataboutism, like this: “Hold on a second, Chris. We also have to go back and look at Adam Schiff who took a prank phone call from people he thought were Russians.”

“Nah, nah, nah, nah, Sean, don’t do that. Sean, hold on, I’ll let you talk about Schiff, I’ll let you talk about Schiff, but come on, we gotta stop this, brother. It doesn’t matter what Schiff did.”

“We could put all this stuff behind us if Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi said we are going to call Joe and Hunter Biden,” Duffy later claimed. “I think Hunter and Biden weren’t allowed to testify because they would have lent credibility to what Donald Trump was trying to do.”

“They had nothing to do with the president’s abuse of power,” Cuomo pointed out, before reminding the former district attorney about why the Bidens weren’t called to testify before the House impeachment investigation. “The people you bring in — Sean, what is a witness to be competent in a court of law?: You know something relevant about the matters at hand. Hunter and Joe Biden don’t know what the president and his lawyer were doing with Ukrainian officials.”

“Did the president have a reason to believe that Joe and Hunter Biden were engaged in corrupt activity?” Duffy replied, avoiding Cuomo’s point.

“It’s not the question.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it’s your question, it’s not the question” about the impeachable offenses, Cuomo noted.

“If Trump is right on that, then Trump is right on all of this,” Duffy stated, matter-of-factly.

“I get your argument. Here’s the counter,” Cuomo said, “The main question is why did [Trump] want just an investigation announced, not an investigation completed, why did he want it just announced? The why. And did he have corrupt intent in that why. Very high bar. Could he have had it? Yes. What’s the best indication of that? Because he did this in a way that only worked to his political advantage, when he could have gotten it done for legitimate reasons easier: How? Call your friends in the Senate, investigate them. Call [Attorney General Bill]Barr, investigate them.

“We’ve had this conversation. We’re on two sides of this issue. We disagree on the facts,” Duffy said simply.

“Can’t disagree on the facts!” Cuomo shot back.

“We don’t have the facts because Joe and Hunter haven’t testified.”

“But they have nothing to do with it!” an exasperated Cuomo blurted out.

When Duffy still insisted that Trump was merely trying to get to the bottom of possible corruption by the Bidens in Ukraine, Cuomo patiently pointed out the reality that both Ukraine and a Senate committee led by Republicans had already investigated those claims and dismissed them.

“You have the best evidence. You have the best evidence, Ukraine, take a look at it for me. I think that’s completely fine,” Duffy said, assuming Trump’s thinking on the July phone call with Zelensky.

“Ukraine did take a look at it again for Giuliani,” Cuomo shot back. “[Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy] Lutsenko did it and closed it and said ‘There’s nothing there!’ That’s a fact!”

After two seconds of deafening silence, Duffy wobbled his way back into speaking, but without actually answering Cuomo’s point and instead just pushing his party’s what-about-Biden talking points: “So, what we’re trying to do is say what I want is I don’t want to bring Joe and Hunter in, I want to protect them.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.