CNN anchor Victor Blackwell ended a segment with Republican former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer by ripping Bauer for deflecting a conversation about President Donald Trump’s impeachment by spewing “debunked conspiracy theories.

In a Saturday morning segment on CNN’s New Day Weekend that was flagged by RawStory’s Matthew Chapman, Blackwell and Bauer were joined by CNN commentator Tara Setmayer to discuss Republican senators’ strategy in dealing with the Ukraine phone call that’s at the heart of the impeachment inquiry against Trump.

“Let’s start here with what we’re getting from the Washington Post. Senators now willing to acknowledge, yeah, it was a quid pro quo,” Blackwell said, adding “You think that’s — one, are you willing to acknowledge what acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged, and do you think it’s right for Republicans to do so too?”

Bauer countered by claiming Trump made the demand in a “jovial” fashion, to which a surprised Blackwell replied “Jovial manner? How did you get jovial out of a written partial transcript?”

It was then that Bauer shifted to promoting a debunked attack about former Vice President Vice President Joe Biden, which Blackwell quickly shot down, saying “What you’re suggesting is that the Bidens did something wrong,” and that “There’s no evidence to suggest that they did something wrong or that it’s illegal.”

Blackwell tried to refocus the conversation on the Trump call, but Bauer persisted.

“Okay, can we please stop with this?” Setmayer said, and Blackwell delivered a quick re-debunking.

“Most of the Western world wanted the Ukrainian general prosecutor Viktor Shokin removed because they felt he was not doing enough to investigate corruption, the European allies wanted him out. Christine Lagarde of the IMF was so disappointed with the work he did, that she was going to hold back billions of dollars. so you’re trying to change and shift what actually was happening in 2016,” Blackwell said.

Undeterred, Bauer then shifted to talking about Hillary Clinton, drawing mockery from Setmayer, and a final rip from Blackwell.

“Okay. We’re done with this conversation,” Blackwell said, adding “I thought this was going to be a talk about strategy from the Republicans who are now acknowledging quid pro quo. We hoped to get to the polling that shows that although we’ve seen three weeks of revelations, that 49 percent, just like they were three weeks ago, support the removal of the president after impeachment. Instead we had to go down this road of debunked conspiracies and fact-check for four and a half minutes.”

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]