Kris Kobach: No, he didn’t pick a race battle. He picked a battle, and then the left, and you, choose to characterize it as a race battle. It’s not about race.

Chris Cuomo: What do you want me to do when he makes a racist comment? I call him a demagogue, because I don’t want to get into the business of what he thinks he is. Because in our political culture, if he says, “I’m not a racist,” then it gives guys like you cover to defend him. But let me ask you something: If the president said, “I am a racist. That’s why I said it,” what would you do?

Kobach: Uh, then I would not defend him, because there’s no excuse for racism in America, period.

Cuomo: Really?

Kobach: Really.

Cuomo: Would you still support him as president?

Kobach: Um, I don’t know. That would be a really tough question.

Cuomo: You have to think about it? You have to think about whether or not you would support a racist?

Kobach: If he said, if he said, if he said, if he says it’s …

Cuomo: Really?

Kobach: I’d have to know who was running against him.

Cuomo: A racist?

Kobach: Look, he—

Cuomo: An admitted racist, you’d have to know more?

Kobach: If he said he was a racist, probably not. Of course not. I mean, you’re making …

Cuomo: Kris, come on, man. It can’t be that partisan.

Kobach: Oh, come on, you’d have to—these—you’re—these are ridiculous hypotheticals. Because the people running against him right now—

Cuomo: It’s ridiculous that it took you that long to answer it!

Kobach: No. Come on. He is not a racist—he’s

Cuomo: You’re running for Senate, and you’ve gotta take a pause whether or not if he said he was a racist you’d still support him? Come on, brother. I hope it’s a satellite delay.

Kobach: No, no no no, I’m taking a pause considering your hypothetical. Your hypothetical doesn’t even make sense.

Cuomo: How so?

Kobach: Because the president has not said anything racist.

Cuomo: I know.

Kobach: The president would not say, “Oh, by the way, everybody, I’m an admitted racist.”

Well, he—hold on, hold on, wait. I take back what I just said. He has said many racist things. He has never said he is a racist. He says, “I am the least racist.” Which by the way isn’t saying that he’s not a racist, it’s saying he’s the least amount of racist that anyone that Don Lemon had ever met.

Look, OK. Let’s go to a—let’s go another, let’s go on to another thing…

Cuomo: I made the hypothetical for a reason.