Martha McSally Yuks It Up With Laura Ingraham About Manu Raju Insult, Then Repeatedly Dodges Same, ‘Easy Question’

Former Air Force combat pilot and appointed Senator Martha McSally chose the GOP-friendly confines of Fox News to dismissively mock the outrage over her insult of CNN reporter Manu Raju — but then repeatedly ducked and dodged when Laura Ingraham pushed her to answer his “easy question” about whether or not there should be witnesses in the Senate trial of President Donald Trump.

Earlier, on Thursday morning McSally quickly rushed past Raju rather than answer his straightforward question and, in what became a media moment of the day, twice called him a “liberal hack” before she slipped inside an office. Her partisan name-calling ignited a rally-’round-the-flag spirit among Raju’s fellow journalists as numerous voices inside and outside the network soon fired back, calling her behavior  “unprofessional,” “extremely unbecoming,” “disgusting…awful,” and “pathetic” and tantamount to disqualifying her from public office.

Rather than face more flak for her move, former Air Force combat pilot McSally fled to The Ingraham Angle on Thursday night, where she and the host yukked it up over her put-down.

“Senator, do you regret what you said?” Ingraham asked in a mock-serious tone.

“No, Laura, I do not. I said it again as I went in: ‘You are a liberal hack, buddy.'” a beaming McSally replied. “You know, these CNN reporters, many of them around the capital, they are so biased. They are so in cahoots with the Democrats, they so can’t stand the president, and they run around trying to chase Republicans and asked trapping questions. I’m a fighter pilot. I called it like it is. That is what we see out of the mainstream media, and especially CNN every single day, so obviously, I’m going to tell the truth, and I did it today, and it’s laughable.”

“They were saying you’ve gone full Trump,” Ingraham noted.

“They’ve also said it was unbecoming a senator and I lashed out and all sorts of things,” McSally said, chuckling.

So far, so good.

Ingraham then played a clip of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer calling on McSally to apologize to Raju, which she mockingly followed up with: “I think they should apologize to James Earl Jones, he should get his voice-over back.”

Piling on the CNN slamfest, McSally added: “They have a lot of apologizing to do, and they should be filing the reports with the DNC.”

But then Ingraham switched gears and McSally’s radar didn’t seem to warn her where the interview was headed.

“I want to ask, my concern about opening the Pandora’s box, 11th hour witnesses, text messages from a guy who is obviously trying to get his sentence reduced,” Ingraham said. “Why do the Republicans always do this nonsense, and Democrats always stay together?”

“Well, Laura, we are trying to stay together, and that is the intent of the vote we are going to take on Monday,” McSally said, before giving a somewhat confusing answer. “You know, everything [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer is doing right now, is not about President Trump, not about the Constitution. It’s not about a fair trial. He just wants power.”

“What about Manu Raju’s question? Do you want witnesses?” Ingraham pressed, fully flipping the script.

“I want a fair trial,” McSally said, clearly not dodging the question.

“You can call me a conservative hack, but do you want witnesses, yes or no? Why aren’t you telling us?” Ingraham asked again.

The on-set demeanor now less warm and convivial than just minutes before, McSally stonewalled: “Because we are going to vote on Tuesday to start the trial, and let them present…”

“How are you going to vote on the motion for more witnesses?” Ingraham asked directly.

“We are going to get to that. I’m not going to tell everybody what all my votes are gonna be,” McSally added, rushing through her words at high speed.

“Kind of an easy question, don’t you think, Senator?” a circumspect Ingraham noted, now ironically echoing many of Raju’s defenders, who had pointed out the very same thing.

“We will proceed forward at that point and I really hope…” McSally began, obfuscating.

“You’re not going to vote with Romney and the others?” Ingraham cut in, referencing the moderate Utah senator who has indicated he would like to have witnesses at the trial.

“We will proceed to a final vote with strong unity after phase one is complete.” McSally concluded, finishing the day still not answering the very basic question she had refused to answer at the start of it.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.