'Why not cooperate?' CNN's Wolf Blitzer hammers Pence's chief of staff over impeachment stonewalling

On Thursday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," anchor Wolf Blitzer challenged Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff Marc Short to justify the administration's stonewalling of the impeachment inquiry.

"Wolf, the reality is that the last three years, they've been trying to overturn the will of the American people. They're trying to take away the votes of the American people," said Short. "This whole impeachment has been a sham. What they've tried to prove there is no proof of ... I think it sets a dangerous precedent."

"Here's what I don't understand," said Blitzer. "If the president has nothing to hide, it was a perfect phone call with the president of Ukraine, why not cooperate, provide the documents, why not let individuals go before the committees and testify?"

"Wolf, this began with a whistleblower report based upon a phone call," whined Short. The president gave the transcript for all—"

"The memorandum," corrected Blitzer. "It's not verbatim necessarily."

"It was provided for all the American people to read."

"But they say on page one, this is not a transcript," said Blitzer. "If there's nothing to see, why not cooperate? Why not let various officials testify and let the documents come forward? What's the big deal?"

Blitzer then pressed Short about the testimony of E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland. "In the House Intelligence Committee report, the vice president is mentioned 60 times, your boss. You've refuted some of the suggestions of his involvement. You issued a statement saying the vice president never had a conversation with Sondland about investigating the Bidens, Burisma, or financial aid to Ukraine based upon potential investigations. Sondland, for his part, as all of us remember, he didn't testify that he was actually a conversation. He said that Pence, that he told Pence the vice president, the aid was linked the to investigations, and Pence simply nodded."

"I asked everybody else who was in that, and nobody remembers Sondland saying such a thing, which is why we believe his allegation is entirely false," said Short.

"You think Sondland is lying?" said Blitzer. "Is Sondland lying to Congress?"

"I'm not going to suggest he's lying. He's mistaken," said Short.

"What is Rudy Giuliani doing in Ukraine right now?" asked Blitzer.

"He's the president's personal lawyer," said Short. "I don't know what Rudy Giuliani does, Wolf."

Watch below: