White House Spokesperson Accuses CNN's Phil Mattingly of Playing Republican's 'Semantic Games' to Argue Biden Impeachment Inquiry

Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for Oversight and Investigations, accused CNN anchor Phil Mattingly of using a GOP talking point during a heated discussion on House Republicans approving a resolution to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, RadarOnline.com has learned.

The tense exchange happened one day after the president's embattled son, Hunter, announced he would defy a House Oversight Committee subpoena unless he could publicly testify.

Given the previous day's developments, Mattingly didn't hold back when questioning Sams over Hunter's announcement and the impeachment inquiry, despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing by the Democrat president, which has even been acknowledged by Republican lawmakers.

"In the statement that Hunter Biden made yesterday said, 'Let me say it as clearly as I can. My father was not financially involved in my business.' He was unequivocal about that," the CNN anchor began.

"But that is an evolution of where the president had been during the campaign, where the White House had been at the start of the administration. Not involved financially in the business is very different than never talked about the business, not been involved in the business at all," Mattingly continued. "Was that an intentional point of clarity, do you think?"

A flustered Sams responded, "I actually dispute the whole premise of that question," to which Mattingly pressed, "Why?"

"It’s one of Jim Jordan’s favorite little shiny objects is to try to take a semantic thing and make an argument that is, that is somehow far afield from what they’re actually focused on," Sams replied.

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"We’ve been extremely clear over and over again for years, and nothing has changed," Sams continued. "The president was not in business with his son, period."

"They’re trying to make up all sorts of allegations and make up lies about him doing things that were wrong and —," Sams said before the CNN anchor interrupted him mid-sentence.

"Ian, with respect. I’m not citing Jim Jordan here," Mattingly fired back.

"I was in some of the White House press briefings where it was said explicitly the president did not talk to his son about business dealing– that is very clearly not the case," the CNN star responded. "And I think the statement from the White House has changed and I think been a little bit more precise over the course of the last several months."

"I’m not saying this is like an impeachable offense or some grand indictment, but it is a fact that the president said one thing that ended up being not true," Mattingly stated.

A visibly frustrated Sams reiterated, "The truth is that he wasn’t in business with his son" while he doubled down on accusing Republican lawmakers of playing "semantic games" to "distract from the actual truth, which is that all of these things have been debunked."