CNN host Don Lemon ripped John Kasich after the former Ohio governor said he does not believe President Trump offered an explicit quid pro quo in his July phone call with the Ukrainian president.

"You can't say stuff like that," the Ohio Republican said Monday night after the CNN anchor asserted that "anybody with half a brain" knows Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for military aid.

"There are people that read that transcript and have a disagreement with what it means," Kasich added, saying he did "not see a clear quid pro quo."

"Then you’re doing exactly what the apologists are doing," Lemon told Kasich. "You’re not helping people understand the problem, then you are part of the problem."

Kasich, 67, competed in the Republican primary against Trump in 2016 and has been a frequent critic of the president since his election. He announced in May that he has no plans to launch a 2020 primary challenge against Trump. "There’s no path right now for me," Kasich said at the time, but he also tweeted the same day that "all of my options are on the table."

Kasich has warned about impeachment over Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he asked the foreign leader to probe Biden, and his son Hunter, for corruption.

"Does one phone call at this point in time lead to impeachment?" he said last month. "This is not a light matter. If all of a sudden everybody can be impeached, then it has no power."

