Fox News contributor: Extortion isn't a crime in foreign relations
Andy McCarthy: Trump can't have extorted Ukraine because extortion “is a domestic criminal law concept, it has no application to foreign relations”
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From the November 12, 2019, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): All right, President Trump could release the transcript of his first phone call with Ukraine as soon as today, as Democrats and the media call to reframe the impeachment takeaway from quid pro quo. They want to switch the words to extortion.
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KILMEADE: So are the Democrats doing a wise thing, jamming extortion down our throats?
ANDREW MCCARTHY (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Every time we -- I think we have gotten to the bottom depths of nonsense in this, Brian, from a legal perspective, they sink even lower. Extortion is a domestic criminal law concept. It has no application to foreign relations. Right now -- take Ukraine out of it. Right now, we are trying to extort the Iranians. We are trying to squeeze them with the president's maximum pressure policy to establish better terms. And we're looking today at Israel as to -- for exactly why it's so important to do that. And everybody in the country with a brain hopes the president succeeds here. And if it's extortion, most people would say that's better than war. And the fact of the matter is, extortion is a domestic criminal law concept where everybody is involved with the, you know, under the same rule of law, under the same legal authorities. In foreign relations, what countries do to each other is basically say what do I have to do for you, or to you, to get you to act in a way that is consistent with what our interests are.