Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue jokingly responded with a “Who?” when NBC anchor Chuck Todd brought up former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake.
Flake’s December Washington Post op-ed called for a “simple test” when considering the impeachment charges against President Donald Trump.
“What if President Barack Obama had engaged in precisely the same behavior?” he wrote. “I know the answer to that question with certainty, and so do you. You would have understood with striking clarity the threat it posed, and you would have known exactly what to do.”
Discussing the topic of impeachment with Perdue on Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press,” Todd brought up the December op-ed.
“Let me ask you this,” said Todd. “How do you think – Jeff Flake wrote it this way, uh, your former Republican colleague from Arizona …”
“Who is that?” Perdue asked. (RELATED: Here’s What Senator Kennedy Said To Get Tucker Carlson ‘Excited’ About Impeachment Trial)
“Jeff Flake, a former senator,” said Todd, seemingly before understanding that Perdue was joking.
“Who? Who?” asked Perdue, smiling.
“Oh, OK,” said Todd. “Uh, touche. But he said, he basically wrote an op-ed, if President Obama did this exact same thing, would you be sitting here as comfortable defending what he did as you are President Trump?”
Not missing a beat, the Georgia senator quickly had an example for the NBC anchor.
“In ‘Fast and Furious’ he did exactly this,” he said. “He withheld evidence from the House of Representatives and the Republicans decided that it was not obstruction of Congress. The Democrats agreed and we did not pursue anything. Nancy Pelosi, Nadler all said that was not obstruction. Yet in this case when the president decides to use executive privilege, they now all of a sudden say, ‘oh, no, that is obstruction of Congress.’ So it’s a little bit hypocritical I think to see some of the comments that are coming out now versus what happened back in ’98.”