Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt Roy Dean BluntSCOTUS confirmation in the last month of a close election? Ugly Senate to push funding bill vote up against shutdown deadline Social media platforms put muscle into National Voter Registration Day MORE (R-Mo.) on Sunday expressed skepticism President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE was “serious” when he called for the Chinese government to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden Joe BidenFormer Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick Bloomberg rolls out M ad buy to boost Biden in Florida MORE and the former vice president's son, Hunter.

“I doubt the China comment was serious …the president loves to go out on the White House driveway, he loves to bait the press to see what you’ll talk about,” Blunt said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

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Blunt’s comment echoed those of Rep. Jim Jordan James (Jim) Daniel JordanHouse panel pulls Powell into partisan battles over pandemic Sunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election House passes resolution condemning anti-Asian discrimination relating to coronavirus MORE (R-Ohio), one of Trump’s most vocal backers in the House, who refused to comment on the appropriateness of Trump’s remarks on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Certainly we shouldn’t expect the Chinese, the Russians or any of our other national security adversaries to be helpful in any way, and if they do come forward with information I think you’d have to seriously question whether there was any veracity to that information or not,” Blunt added on CBS.

Asked whether Trump potentially making military aid to Ukraine conditional on an investigation of the Bidens would be impeachable conduct, Blunt responded: “I don’t think it’s unusual for foreign leaders when they talk to each other say to say ‘here’s something I would like you to do for me’ whether it’s a trade agreement or some other agreement.”

“I don’t think that’s unusual, I think the question here is, is [an impeachment inquiry] going to be a partisan effort on the part of the House,” Blunt continued. “I think you have to assume that if it’s essentially a partisan vote in the house then that sets the stage for the likely same kind of vote in the senate, but let’s see what the facts are.”

House Democrats launched an official impeachment inquiry amid reports Trump encouraged his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate the Bidens.

Trump last week also said China should look into them.

--This report was updated at 11:41 a.m.