CNN’s Jake Tapper grilled House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) concerning the dinner President Donald Trump hosted for the highest investors of the $Trump meme coin.

In a contentious again-and-forth on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Tapper confronted Johnson about the dinner Trump hosted Thursday night time at his golf club in Virginia — the place the top 220 purchasers of the coin acquired some personal face time with the president. Critics on each side have denounced the scheme. (In a scathing op-ed published Wednesday, The Wall Boulevard Journal mentioned, The fantastic print disclosed that the Trump Group and associates held eighty% of the coin tokens and subsequently stood to profit from any worth appreciation” and demanded an inventory of attendees be made public “so Americans know who is also looking to buy get admission to to the President.”)

“I actually have a tough time imagining that if this was once a Democratic president doing the very same thing you wouldn’t be outraged,” Tapper told Johnson on Sunday.

The Speaker pleaded lack of awareness on the topic — citing his round the clock involvement with getting the Trump-backed “Giant, Stunning” price range invoice passed.

“Well, appear, I don’t recognize the rest about the dinner,” Johnson mentioned. “I was just a little busy this past week, as you know, getting the reconciliation package over the line. And so I’m no longer going to comment on one thing I haven’t even heard about. I’m certain who used to be there, what the aim was once.”

Tapper adopted up by noting that Johnson was a vocal critic of Hunter Biden raking in $5 million from a Ukrainian energy agency in an alleged affect peddling scheme.

“You oversaw, as speaker, a congressional investigation into President Biden’s ties to his son Hunter’s questionable trade dealings to enrich him,” Tapper mentioned. “You looked as if it would suppose it used to be your accountability to seem into this sort of thing then.”

“The big important big difference, the Biden crime household, as they had been named, earned that title,” Johnson answered. “Why? Because they use shell firms, fake LLCs, a collection of what gave the look to be cash laundering operation. And Hunter Biden, in fact, along with his troublesome earlier and the corruption in his earlier, the domestic on the public dole, or on the president’s dole. You understand, the president lied about his involvement within the industry dealings, all of that. The evidence simply piled up.”

He introduced, “The adaptation, after all, is that President Trump does the whole thing out in the open. He’s now not trying to cover anything. There’s no shell firms or faux LLCs or pretend household companies. He’s putting it available in the market so everyone can evaluate for themselves.”

Tapper pushed Johnson another time — imploring him to make a name for the list of the Trump dinner’s attendees to be made to be had.

“Shouldn’t we as a minimum simply be aware of who was on the dinner?” Tapper requested. “Wouldn’t you need to understand that record of people?”

“Again, I don’t recognize anything else about that dinner,” Johnson said. “I do comprehend that President Trump is probably the most clear president in essentially the most-clear administration, almost definitely in history. He has nothing to cover, and he’s out there trying to advance The usa’s pursuits.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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