Fox News contributor and former Bush White House spokesman Ari Fleischer corrected Fox host Brian Kilmeade about the problematic nature of President Donald Trump’s Ukraine phone call, even as he defended Trump from the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

On Friday morning’s edition of Fox & Friends, Kilmeade and Fleischer downplayed White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s disastrous press conference, during which he explicitly admitted to a quid pro quo with Ukraine over foreign aid.

Fleischer told Kilmeade that Mulvaney made a “terrible mistake” by “saying something that’s contrary to what the president has said,” adding that Mulvaney’s “words were moving faster than his mind. And he should’ve stopped, paused, slowed down, and not tried to educate reporters. Just said what needed to be said.”

Mulvaney had to issue a statement hours later denying he had said what the entire world heard him say, a statement that is being charitably described as a “walk-back.”

Kilmeade read some of that statement, then told Fleischer that asking the Ukraine government to demonstrate its ability to fight corruption before releasing foreign aid is “normal.”

“Okay, now that would have been fine,” Fleischer said, but added “The problem here, and this goes back the original call that the President made to Zelensky, if it was all about corruption, and that was the only thing the president talked about, or Mulvaney talked about, perfectly appropriate.”

“But once you bring in the name of your opponent, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, once you talk about the 2016 election, you’ve gone beyond corruption,” Fleischer continued, adding “You’ve made a political personal, and that would be a central flaw here that we are all discussing.”

But Fleischer went on to argue that Trump’s actions do not constitute an impeachable offense.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

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