'Even the lies?' CNN host refuses to let Nancy Mace off hook over defense of Trump attacks

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said she had "no qualms" about former President Donald Trump's false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

During a Wednesday interview on CNN, host Brianna Keilar informed Mace that Trump had doubled down on the falsehoods about migrants at a Univision town hall event.

"And last, I want to ask you, this Univision Town Hall, we just learned that he reiterated his rhetoric and actually went further about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio," Kielar explained. "He said, quote, they're eating other things, too, that they're not supposed to be."

"Do you think that rhetoric is helpful?" the CNN host asked.

"Well, I think that there's a lot of rhetoric that's unhelpful," Mace said.

ALSO READ: People have had enough': Here are the 3 'big-picture' reasons why Kamala Harris will win

"But I'm asking you about this," Keilar pressed.

"In Ohio, I mean, there were videos, wacky videos online, and there were allegedly police reports," Mace opined. "So if we're going to talk about rhetoric, I think we should talk about both sides, rhetoric from both sides."

"I don't have any qualms about anything that Trump has said about Ohio," she insisted.

"What he has said about Ohio has been false," Keilar pointed out, "and has arguably endangered people there, but you have no qualms, to be clear, as you said, about his rhetoric about Ohio?"

"I don't have anything, nothing that I've seen about what he said about Ohio gives me any sort of pause," Mace replied.

"Even the lies?" the CNN host asked.

"I care about everybody," Mace asserted.

"Do you?" Keilar challenged.

"I absolutely do," Mace remarked. "And I see it on both sides, too. And I've called people out. I call the balls and strikes."

"But to my knowledge, no one in Ohio has been threatened because of something Trump has said about Ohio when there have been people that have given interviews about some of the challenges they've had with immigrants that are there."

Watch the video below or at this link.