NBC News’ Chuck Todd and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) clashed after Todd noted the House GOP leader seemed “uncomfortable” in trying to defend President Donald Trump during an interview.
Todd asked why Trump directed his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to go to Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, rather than go through official channels.
“Why is he asking Rudy Giuliani to go to a foreign country to do it? Do you understand — do you understand that?” Todd asked.
“Well, you can ask Rudy Giuliani. That and the chairman himself said he’s not even sure if he would bring Rudy,” Scalise said, moving on to attack Democratic leadership.
“Let’s take the word ‘impeachment’ out of this,” Todd said. “Given what Rudy Giuliani was doing or not doing … is this not worthy of congressional oversight? Is this not worthy of an investigation?”
Scalise again demurred, saying Giuliani was the person to ask.
Todd said he thought Scalise was dodging answering his questions. “Every time I’ve asked you if you’re concerned about the actions the president took, you’ve avoided answering this specific question and instead focused on—”
“Don’t try to infer,” Scalise said.
“I’m just asking,” Todd responded. You seem to be uncomfortable … let me put it this way. You seem uncomfortable defending the president’s actions.”
“You’ve made a lot of statements and accusations that aren’t true, Chuck,” Scalise said.
Watch above, via NBC News.