Appearing on CNN's New Day, conservative Ben Ferguson said he had concerns about the "moral character" of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and said they should step aside -- but gave President Donald Trump a pass.
Appearing with host Chris Cuomo and CNN regular Ana Navarro, Ferguson was asked about the allegations against Moore and Franken.
"Look, there's two things here that I hope that most of us can agree on," Ferguson told host Cuomo. "And that's that Al Franken and a guy named Roy Moore in Alabama -- neither of them should be in the U.S. Senate. I don't think either of them have the character that you need to be in the Senate. I think these allegations against both of them have nothing to do with politics. I think they have everything to do with their character as a person. So I hope that both sides look at this and realize, when you have allegations like this, we don't need to look at it as a voting roster of who is going to be on my team or against me. We need to look at it as simply an issue of right and wrong."
Pressed by Cuomo as to how he could equate the accusations against Moore with Franken's transgressions, Ferguson deftly stepped around the point, stating, "I'm not excusing or equating Al Franken's groping picture with what Roy Moore is accused of here. That's not my point at all this morning. This is the part about politics. why I think most people hate us, especially those that have been either sexually assaulted or sexually abused. They get frustrated with the semantics of this."
"I think we have to demand better of our elected officials or those running for office than where we are right now, saying, 'well, you did something worse than this guy did.' That doesn't help victims out," the conservative commentator added.
"Did you call for Trump to step down when the accusations came out about him earlier in the campaign?" Cuomo asked.
That was when Ferguson hedged his comments.
"Donald Trump's accusations came out --," Ferguson began before pausing. "Let's be clear, because I did it on this show and we were talking about him grabbing. I said that was inappropriate and completely irresponsible and wrong. and I would not defend it."
"Now, again, I go back to the point," Ferguson said. "That's where you have the political question, Chris, right there. That's my problem with all of this. We have to stop going back in politics. Going, 'okay, you attacked Franken, so now what about this quote by a Republican? Hold on, what about this quote from a Democrat. That doesn't help anyone here."
"The point now, in 2017, is where we should clearly say we're going to raise the bar from this point forward and stop playing politics of 'I gotcha' with your guy on the right or your guy on the left," he concluded.
You can watch the video below via CNN:
