Sparks flew and a temper flared during a heated argument between NBC political director Chuck Todd and Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Sunday’s Meet the Press. The former raged as the latter dismantled the combined narrative of congressional Democrats and the liberal media when it came to impeachment, media bias, and Ukraine. Here are the highlights.

After his guest dared to hint at President Trump’s tough on Russia policies, Todd was in disbelief. “Do you believe that the President did with Ukraine somehow was tough on Russia or didn't the President by just introducing all of this delayed aid play into the hands of Russia,” he demanded to know.

“Ha, ha, ha. You know, Chuck, substance matters,” Cruz laughed at his moderator as he proceeded to school (the first of many) him on how Trump had armed Ukraine to fight a hot war against Russia:

TED CRUZ: By any measure, the President's policy and this administration's policy has been tougher on Russia, and actually better for Ukraine than Obama's was. Let me give you an example. You mentioned the Ukrainian aid. The Donald Trump administration gave lethal defensive aid to Ukraine: javelin missiles to take out Russian tanks. Do you know what? Throughout the Obama administration I repeatedly pressed President Obama to give lethal aid to Ukraine. I traveled to Ukraine. I went to the Maiden Square in Kyiv. And they needed lethal aid, but the Obama administration, they sent teddy bears and MREs. They wouldn't actually give weapons.

Shortly thereafter, Cruz brought up how “House Democrats put out a 55-page report, they called it a scholarly report that purports to say you don't have to prove a crime, you don't have to prove a law was violated to impeach a president.”

Todd began to scream over his guest to get him to stop exposing the Democrats. “Senator! That is exactly why the impeachment was written into the Constitution,” he proclaimed. He proceeded to defend the Democratic argument that no provable crime was needed, supposedly because, “That's exactly why the phrase ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ is in there, because they did it before they even wrote our laws, sir!”

“So, high crimes or misdemeanors was a term of art that the framers used,” the Senator explained. He also pointed out how moving the goalpost was “tell” from Democrats. “You know, just a few weeks ago, their talking point was bribery, bribery, bribery, they're now admitting they can't prove a crime, they can’t prove a law was violated.”

Todd never explained how the lack of a provable crime was allowed by the Constitution. The document said “high crimes and misdemeanors,” but the U.S. justice system also said one was innocent until proven guilty.

Then, when Senator Cruz said that he believed “Hunter Biden got that position is because his daddy was vice president of the United States,” Todd put words in his guest’s mouth and bitterly declared, “So, you believe Ukraine meddled.”

For weeks, Todd and the rest of the liberal media had been pretending it was somehow a crazy fringe conspiracy theory despite their articles about it from 2017. So, when Cruz acknowledged that was what he believed, Todd was visibly shocked and the crew in his studio audibly laughed:

TODD: Do, you believe Ukraine meddled? [Crosstalk] TODD: Do you believe Ukraine meddled in the election in 2016. CRUZ: I do. And I think there is considerable evidence. TODD: You do?! [Laughter from the studio] TODD: You do? CRUZ: And Chuck, let me say. TODD: [Trips over words] Senator, this sort of strikes me as odd because you went through a primary campaign with this President.

Following Todd’s freak out, Cruz calmly called out the “game” he and the rest of “the media is playing” with those facts. “You've said the senators, sort of aghast, ‘do you believe Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the election?’ Now, that in a court of law would be struck as a misleading question. Of course, Russia interfered in our election. Nobody looking at the evidence disputes that,” he said.

To further back up his point, Cruz argued that the reason Todd the rest of the liberal media were now downplaying Ukraine’s meddling was that, “A, they were trying to get Hillary Clinton elected, which is what the vast majority of the media wanted anyway. And B, it's inconvenient for the narrative.”

Todd was obviously fuming and lashed out by asking the Senator if he read the intelligence reports that showed Russia meddled in 2016. Cruz schooled him again by noting that he did, and that he’s sat through many briefings when other countries tried to interfere as well.

“Russia has tried to interfere in our elections. China has tried to interfere in our elections. North Korea has tried to interfere in our elections. Ukraine has tried to interfere in our elections. This is not new, 2016 is not the first year they did it,” he said.

As further proof that Todd counted himself on the side of House Democrats, just before introducing Senator Cruz, he spoke with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and teed him up to question the validity of the 2020 election if Trump wasn’t removed from office by the Senate:

TODD: Let me ask this, if he is acquitted, do you believe we'll have a fair election in 2020? NADLER: I don't know. The President, based on his past performance, will do everything he can to make it not a fair election. And that is part of what gives us the urgency to proceed with this impeachment. TODD: Chairman Nadler, I’m going to leave it there. Thank you for coming on and sharing your views.

Todd was the same journalist that proclaimed himself to be the proper political “referee” America needed.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read: