Rep. Christ Stewart (R-UT), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, argued on Friday that it would be “foolish” for a president to not accept dirt from a foreign nation during an election.
When CNN host Jim Sciutto asked Stewart if a sitting U.S. president should accept information from a foreign country that was intended to influence the election, the GOP lawmaker kept saying that “it depends.”
“It depends on who it is and the circumstances and how credible it is,” Stewart told Scuitto.
“There might be valuable information that comes from one of our allies,” he said. “If they look at it, and it’s credible, I think it would be foolish not to take that information.”
President Donald Trump caused a firestorm on Wednesday when he told ABC News reporter George Stephanopoulos that he’d welcome dirt from a foreign country on his 2020 opponent, saying that it was merely “oppo research.”
“I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening,” Trump said.
Stewart conceded that Trump’s comments weren’t “helpful.”
“I wish the President would have said–would not have said it the way he did and I don’t think it was helpful,” the Republican congressman said.
Watch below:
"There might be valuable information that comes from one of our allies … I think it would be foolish not to take that." @RepChrisStewart, when asked by @jimsciutto if it is acceptable for the President to accept information from foreign countries.https://t.co/NTAtcqHgVh pic.twitter.com/OgAksVSGKH
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) June 14, 2019
