(CNSNews.com) - "There was no quid pro quo" in President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call with the Ukraine president, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Host Jake Tapper, annoyed, repeatedly pressed Cramer to say that Trump's mention of the Bidens in that phone call was "inappropriate."
Cramer told Tapper that President Trump is "very clear" in expressing his opinions, and Cramer said he doesn't get the sense that Trump was "pushing" the Ukrainians to do something:
I think he talks. He thinks out loud. He expresses whatever's on his mind. And people can take that and twist it any way they want to.
But the new precedent for impeachment is that we don't like this president that just got elected, so we're going to spend all four years trying to impeach him.
And, no, I think we have a far too divided country that is reflected in our politics. And I'd much rather see us have a more balanced approach to things, obviously more dialogue, more things like what you and I are doing right now, than -- than these rallies that are -- that are surrounded by riots.
We have a problem in our country in terms of our dialogue. And we need to get -- we need to fix it. Whether that comes from the top down, I suspect it's probably more likely to come from the bottom up. And I hope that's what happens.
Cramer noted that the corruption involving Burisma, the company that made Hunter Biden a board member, was "being investigated" even before Trump brought it up in his phone call.
"He released the entire transcript of this supposed phone call that supposedly had all of this quid pro quo, which once again proved to not be true. There was no quid pro quo in the -- in the phone conversation. So, no doubt that the haters are going to hate," Cramer said.
Tapper, insistent, said, "I don't think it's been established that there was no quid pro quo...I don't know that it's been established one way or another that -- you're just asserting that there isn't one (a quid pro quo). I certainly think it's worth investigating. Don't you?" Tapper asked.
"Well, if it is, then it's certainly worth investigating whether Hunter Biden used his status as the son of the vice president to fly around the world on Air Force Two and -- and gaining all kinds of government contracts and -- or positions with companies that he has no qualifications to serve for, and getting a large paycheck as a result of it," Cramer responded.
Earlier on "State of the Union," Tapper said, "I want to make clear that President Trump and his allies are lying about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. And, obviously, the conduct of President Trump to ask, push, whatever, foreign countries to investigate the Bidens has been deemed to be impeachable by Democrats in the House."