Story highlights Trenton Garmon was a guest on MSNBC Wednesday

He fell into a tense exchange with the hosts

Washington (CNN) An attorney for Roy Moore on Wednesday compared Moore's dating habits to arranged marriage and suggested that MSNBC host Ali Velshi's "background" would help him understand Moore's "process."

Trenton Garmon, Moore's attorney, was a guest on MSNBC Wednesday and fell into a tense exchange with Velshi and his co-host, Stephanie Ruhle. Velshi is of Indian descent but his family moved to Toronto, where they still live, shortly after his birth.

Garmon was asked to explain why Moore "would need permission from any of these girls' mothers if they weren't underage" -- one of a series of questions about allegations of sexual abuse of teenage girls made against the Alabama Senate candidate . Last week, Moore had told Fox host Sean Hannity in his defense, "I don't remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother."

Garmon began, "Culturally speaking, obviously there's differences, (I) looked up Ali's background there, and wow, that's awesome that you have got such a diverse background, it's really cool to read through that. But point is this, each culture has..."

"What does Ali's background have to do with dating a 14-year-old?" Ruhle cut in.

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