On Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper commented on President Donald Trump criticizing Bill Taylor and his testimony to the House impeachment inquiry.

Tapper said, “The deposition this past week from the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor, was, Republican sources tell CNN, impactful and, ‘reverberating’ among Republicans on the Hill. Taylor detailed conversations with Trump administration officials pushing an explicit quid pro quo, in his view. He was told, ‘everything that Ukraine wanted from the United States including military aid depending on the president publicly announcing an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden.’ The White House has been relentlessly attacking Ambassador Taylor.

He continued, “The president then called Taylor a Never-Trumper, and there’s no evidence for that. And he said that all Never-Trumpers, quote, are human scum. Human scum. Thousands of miles away, watching this all unfold, was one of Taylor’s west point classmates with whom he served in Vietnam, now retired colonel Bob Seitz.”

He added, “Seitz told me that Bill Taylor of Alpha Company is the embodiment of the military academy cadet prayer, ‘make us to choose the harder right instead of, the easier wrong and never be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won.’ Colonel Seitz told me he’s been enraged, watching the president and his aides lie about his friend Bill Taylor.”

Tapper concluded, “President Trump can suggest that Taylor is ‘human scum’ and the folks in the White House can attempt to smear Bill Taylor but to his friends, the president isn’t just attacking Bill Taylor, he’s attacking the values that Taylor personifies: duty, honor, and country. General Eikenberry told me, ‘Taylor’s integrity and courage are the true marks of patriotism, loyal to an oath of office and never to be corrupted or intimidated by those seeking personal gain at our nation’s expense.’ You can ask yourself: of the behavior and values you have seen displayed during this impeachment inquiry, whose makes you proud to be an American and whose might make you ashamed?”

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