On Tuesday, CNN's Erin Burnett asked Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) whether he would condemn President Donald Trump if the allegations are true that he tried to strong-arm Ukraine to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden — and he denied, deflected, and tried to push Trump's own conspiracy theory.
"If the president asked Ukraine's president to investigate his political rival, it would be in the extreme," said Burnett. "He did say he asked him, you don't have a problem with that on its face?"
"I don't want to get into hypotheticals," said Zeldin. "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 Ukrainian leadership of taking away $1 billion from the Ukraine if they don't fire their state prosecutor."
"To be clear, he did that," said Burnett. "He was proud to do it and he was in line with — with every Western country in doing so, but in that it was consistent. If he tried to cover it up he wouldn't bragged about it. That prosecutor was not investigating corruption in Ukraine which is why everybody wanted him out. Look, let's just be clear. There is no evidence of Joe Biden doing anything wrong and this is something that has been looked into and I want to make a point here I think what we need to talk about right now is what did the president right now do or not do and one thing we know he did, congressman and this is a week before the call. We know he that a week before the call, he directed Mick Mulvaney, his chief of staff, to hold up the aid ... How do you feel about that, that they told you interagency process and you were lied to?"
"Well, first off, with regards to providing aid to other countries it's important to note that at the same exact time the president was looking to cut aid at many different countries," said Zeldin. "One last point about the Ukraine prosecutor, 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."
"From our understanding in the Bloomberg reporting that investigation was dormant, already dormant when any of this happened. It was not under investigation," said Burnett. "You could have read The New York Times in the spring you could have read it when they went into it extensively. I mean this is not new information as you point out the tape of Joe Biden saying it is hardly breaking news."
"That was January of 2018 but this is not something that — here is the thing, 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 billion if they don't stop prosecuting his son's company paying $50,000 a month."
"You're making that part up," said Burnett. "That was never said and that is not true."
"That's the state's prosecutor," said Zeldin.
"You are saying that's why he did it and that's false," said Burnett, who demanded again to know how Zeldin would respond if the allegations against Trump were proven.
"I'm not playing the hypothetical game," he insisted again.
"Are you or are you not, the president of the United States said that he asked him so I asked him to look into Joe Biden," said Burnett. "Are you okay with it?"
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