Rick Santorum slammed by conservative Max Boot in CNN clash over 'loyal lickspittles' for Trump

A CNN panel featuring both former Republican Senator Rick Santorum and conservative columnist Max Boot grew heated on Friday morning on the topic of the GOP lawmakers storming a closed-door impeachment inquiry hearing on Wednesday, with Boot calling the GOP lawmakers "loyal lickspittles" for the president.

With "New Day" host Alisyn Camerota moderating, the two conservatives went toe-to-toe in the combative segment.

"Look, I think there's a lot of frustration on the Republican side about the way the Democrats are conducting this," Santorum began. "It's a purely political exercise on the part of the Democrats. I mean, they are not following what would be the normal course of an impeachment process and I think their objective is purely political. I don't think they really believe that they're going to impeach -- well, they're going to impeach him -- but that this president will be convicted in the Senate. So they're seeing this as a political exercise and controlling it like a political exercise and the Republican response is if they're going to treat this as a political exercise, we will too."

Asked to respond, Boot replied, "Well, my thought, Alisyn, is that this week has been utterly devastating for President Trump. Bill Taylor's testimony was not just the smoking gun, it was a smoking howitzer. We saw the evidence it was a quid pro quo for ourselves in the rough transcript of the call between President Trump and President Zelensky. By the way, let's not forget Mick Mulvaney admitted there was a quid pro quo. That means the president of the United States misused military aid appropriated by Congress to blackmail a foreign country into interfering in the U.S. election to help him win re-election. That is the very definition of a high crime and misdemeanor."

From that point, the conversation grew contentious with a plenty of interruptions and talking over each other, with Boot at one time lamenting, "Rick, come on!"

"I'm saying if the Democrats are serious about trying to remove this president in the middle of an election -- we're in the middle of the election right now -- if they're serious about doing so, they have to build a broader consensus and that means they have to start including Republicans, because Republicans --," Santorum attempted only to have Boot snap, "Republicans are included."

"No, they're not," Santorum shot back.

"There are 46 on the committee, you're saying this may not rise to the level of impeachment. I beg to differ," Boot fired back.

Watch below: