The White House’s reconstructed transcript was damning—Trump apparently asked the president of Ukraine to “look into” his 2020 rival Joe Biden. It’s pretty indefensible, and yet Trump and his supporters have coalesced around a defense: The theory that Biden and his son were engaging in corruption, therefore somehow justifying the president’s outrageous request. But there's no evidence to suggest that this theory is true, and CNN’s Jake Tapper fact checked Rep. Jim Jordan on air Sunday when he tried to raise it.

One exchange during their interview centered around Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which began in 2014. With his father just a heartbeat away from the American presidency at the time—and Biden earning a reported $50,000 a month despite lacking any experience in the oil and gas business—the situation raised concerns about conflicts of interest.

But it’s neither illegal nor uncommon for the relatives of American politicians to accept similar gigs. There’s been no evidence of any criminal misdeeds from the Bidens, and in 2016 the then-vice president called for the ouster of Ukraine’s prosecutor general over his failure to tackle corruption in the nation. Based on this, Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and their cohorts have been making the thoroughly unsubstantiated claim that Biden urged the prosecutor’s ouster to shield his son from investigation.

In fact, much of the international community was united in urging the official’s firing. And by advocating for the dismissal of a prosecutor who turned a blind eye to corruption, Biden actually may have increased the likelihood that the company his son worked for could fall under investigation. After the ouster, a subsequent Ukrainian prosecutor general announced this spring that there was no evidence that the Bidens had committed any wrongdoings. Still, Jordan ignored these well-established facts in his Sunday State of the Union appearance.

“He’s getting paid $50,000—and then when the company that’s paying him that money is under investigation, guess what, Daddy comes running to the rescue,” said the Ohio congressman. "The Vice President of the United States comes running and says, ‘Fire that prosecutor.’”

“Sir, that’s not what happened,” said Tapper. "The European Union, the Obama Administration, the International Monetary Fund, pro-clean government activists in Ukraine thought that the prosecutor was not prosecuting corruption.”

"Here are the facts—" Jordan continued.

“You’re not saying facts,” Tapper shot back.

Eventually, Jordan settled on a part of his narrative that was supported by evidence. “Did Joe Biden’s son get paid $50,000 a month in a field and an industry that he had no experience in?” he asked.

"If you want to push a law saying that the children of presidents and vice-presidents should not be doing international business deals, I’m all for it," Tapper responded. "But you’re setting a standard that’s not being met right now.”

"I think that you came here and leveled a bunch of accusations and allegations about Hunter Biden," Tapper later said. "And would think that someone who’s been accused of things in the last year or two would be more sensitive about throwing out wild allegations against people." Watch the full interview below.

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Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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