Conservative pundits threw sharp elbows Friday on CNN’s “New Day,” sparring over former FBI director James Comey’s Senate testimony about his private conversations with President Donald Trump.
“This is turning into — this whole episode post-testimony — an ugly dog contest for pathetic talking points,” David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantic, told Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union.
“David, I’m not an ugly dog, and I’m not taking the airtime,” Schlapp replied.
Schlapp moments earlier had said he didn’t find Trump’s alleged request for Comey’s “loyalty” improper.
Responded Frum, “Matt, taking all the airtime won’t make your arguments better.”
Frum had argued that Comey’s testimony a day earlier before the Senate intelligence committee “made it clear that everything the President has said about their interactions was a lie, a word he used again and again.”
When anchor Alisyn Camerota noted that Comey confirmed Trump’s claim that the former FBI director repeatedly told him he wasn’t under investigation, Frum wasn’t swayed.
“Look, it’s a pretty sad exoneration for a President to say, yes, the FBI director assured him in January that the President personally was not, at that time, a target of the larger investigation into espionage involving his campaign and his closest supporters,” Frum said. “I don’t know that if I were President Trump, I would be heralding that as much of a vindication.”
“It is perfectly logical for every person to want to know” if they’re a person of interest in an investigation, said Schlapp, who added that during his time in the George W. Bush White House, he “was caught up in some of these investigations.”
