Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Democratic Rep. David Cicilline (R.I.) continually cut each other off during a heated interview Thursday evening on Attorney General Jeff Sessions' meetings last year with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
The conversation exploded after Carlson told Cicilline that he walked out on a censure vote involving former Attorney General Eric Holder in May 2013.
Carlson first suggested that Cicilline was "getting a little ahead of the story" by saying that Sessions committed perjury for not disclosing his meetings during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
Cicilline called the situation that Sessions is in "disturbing," arguing he gave "false testimony" under oath.
Carlson asked if that means his standard is if an attorney general "says something in Congress that turns out not to be true he needs to resign and face perjury charges."
"You don't buy the attorney general's explanation that he believed that Sen. [Al] Franken was referring to his capacity as a campaign adviser?" Carlson asked.
"First of, all I don't think that that is credible," Cicilline responded.
Then Carlson brought up Eric Holder
"But I'm just interested in the standard," he said. "You're saying I have been in Washington since childhood, long enough to remember May of 2013, when then-Attorney General Eric holder said in public I had nothing to do with surveillance of reporters who might be involved in writing critical stories on the administration. He said that and it turned out to be a lie, and Congress sent–had a [inaudible] censoring him and you walked out of that vote–"
The two men then started talking over each other.
"And that is a very clear double standard," Carlson continued.
"That's absolutely not the case," Cicilline said.
Cicilline repeated that Sessions was under oath, testifying to Congress, and gave false statements. He continued to talk when Carlson jumped back in.
"By the way, just let me finish," Cicilline said.
"OK, you're not going to answer my question obviously," Carlson said as he laughed.
Cicilline then brought up the integrity of elections until Carlson had enough.
"You know what, I don't think I can sit through another–"
Cicilline continued to speak.
"If you're going to give that lecture, I have to ask very specific questions," Carlson said.
"No, I mean–I'm not giving you a lecture, I'm just saying," Cicilline said, cutting the Fox News host off.
"No, no, because I've gotten this lecture a thousand times," Carlson said.
Cicilline launched back into his discussion about the integrity of elections, citing Russian hacks during the 2016 election. Carlson wanted clarification from Cicilline, asking if Russian officials hacked into voting machines.
Cicilline said they "hacked into our system" and "released emails."
The back and forth continued until Carlson had to end the interview, but asked for Cicilline to come back on his show.