CNN

On NBC’s "Meet the Press" this morning, Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, got into a dispute with Chuck Todd, saying he was “sympathetic” with what President Donald Trump has “gone through.”

Johnson tried to pivot the interview onto questions Todd should ask former CIA director John Brennan, a later guest, about texts Peter Strzok, the fired former FBI agent, sent to Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer.

“Who leaked? You know I have my third letter into the Inspector General of the Intelligence community asking to just confirm are you investigating those leaks that Peter Strzok talked about in that text with Lisa Page?” Johnson said.

Todd pushed back against what he called a “Fox News conspiracy” and tried to bring the topic back to Ukraine.

“Please answer the question that I asked you instead of trying to make Donald Trump feel better here,” Todd said.

Johnson said the president “vehemently, angrily denied it” and said “I’d never do that,” when Johnson asked Trump about the implication that Ukraine’s military aid was linked to an investigation into Hunter Biden. There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter.

Some background: Strzok claims his termination in August 2018 came because of political pressure on the FBI from Trump after he criticized the President and made political comments in text messages in 2016.

In summer 2017, former special counsel Robert Mueller removed Strzok from his team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election after an internal investigation first revealed texts with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom Strzok had an extramarital affair, that could be read as exhibiting political bias.