Democrats may be expressing shock over President Donald Trump’s now-infamous phone call with the Ukraine president, but it’s all part of a “do as I say, not as I do” motto politicians have been getting away with for years.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson broke down this motto this week by uncovering 2004 comments from John Kerry where he bragged about how foreign leaders contacted him and told him how much they wanted him to beat George W. Bush in the presidential election — to put things into context, Kerry is one of the many Democrats claiming Trump did something wrong by suggesting Ukraine investigate Joe Biden’s ties to his son Hunter’s businesses.

“John Kerry has been talking to anyone who will listen about the president’s shocking behavior with Ukraine,” Carlson said of the former secretary of state. The Fox host then cut to a recent MSNBC interview where Kerry reacted to Trump’s Ukraine phone call.

“My reaction is one of absolute shock and abasement … that is a fundamental, profound abuse of power. There’s no other way to put it,” Kerry said.

“Kerry is full of it, as you know. But, just to put some meat on those bones, during the 2004 election, which he lost, John Kerry openly bragged about soliciting support from foreign leaders against his opponent that year, the incumbent President George W. Bush,” Carlson said in reaction.

“I’ve met foreign leaders who can’t go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, ‘you’ve got to win this, you’ve got to beat this guy, we need a new policy.’ Things like that,” Kerry reportedly said in 2004.

Carlson also criticized Kerry for refusing to name the leaders who supposedly said such things to him. The then-presidential candidate kept mum on names because he said that sort of trust between leaders was necessary to run the country.

“John Kerry said he wasn’t going to be specific because it was his right to keep his conversations with foreign leaders confidential — that’s absolutely necessary for leadership,” Carlson said.

Source: Fox News

The Kerry comment follows a Bill Clinton comment being uncovered by Carlson where Clinton asked Tony Blair for a political boost ahead of the 2000 presidential election.

“This is very, very common,” Carlson said of leaders asking each other for political help.

Unlike these other examples, Trump has in no way tried to hide or spin anything. He’s released the transcript from his phone call, and even the president of Ukraine has come forward to say the call included no quid pro quo, as Democrats are arguing it did.

This bit of conversation Democrats are clinging to stems from Joe Biden being accused of — and possibly bragging about — quid pro quo when he was vice president. Biden has long been accused of using his position in the White House to help with his son’s overseas business dealings, including getting a Ukraine prosecutor fired who was investigating a company Hunter worked for.