Trump 2020 Campaign Asks For Donations For Republican McSally After She Called Reporter 'Liberal Hack'

U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign is soliciting donations through Twitter for Senator Martha McSally, a Republican from Arizona, after she refused to answer a CNN reporter's question about impeachment on Thursday and called him a "liberal hack."

"THREE CHEERS for Senator @MarthaMcSally!!!," the president's official campaign account wrote on Twitter. "THIS is how you handle FAKE NEWS," the post continued, tagging CNN before directing viewers to donate to McSally's reelection campaign.

Earlier in the day, CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked the senator whether the Senate should consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial. In recent days, Lev Parnas, a potential trial witness, has come forward with text messages, photos and other documentation suggesting the president was aware of his administration's efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

"Manu, you're a liberal hack. I'm not talking to you," the senator said as she hurried past the CNN reporter in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

"You're not going to comment?" Raju asked, to which McSally replied: "You're a liberal hack."

McSally's office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Newsweek about whether she welcomed the Trump campaign's donation directive and seeming endorsement of her remarks, as well as whether the senator has any specific complaints about the CNN reporter's past work.

Mark Kelly, a Democrat and former astronaut, is trying to unseat McSally come November. Recent polling analysis by Real Clear Politics indicates he's ahead in the race, and the Kelly campaign recently announced it has raised $6.4 million dollars more than McSally, a former combat veteran.

"It is extremely unbecoming for a U.S. Senator to sink to this level and treat a member of the press this way for simply doing his job," CNN told Newsweek in a written statement. On Twitter, Raju wrote that the senator "lashed out."

Neither CNN nor Raju commented on the Trump campaign's Twitter post, however.

Fifty-one senators would be required to allow new evidence not already obtained by the House into their impeachment trial, which starts on Tuesday, Raju said in the CNN segment that included McSally's jab.

"That's why it's a key question, but at least one senator says no, and another senator didn't want to talk about it, clearly," Raju said during the broadcast.

Senator David Perdue, a Republican from Georgia, told Raju that evaluating new evidence wasn't part of the Senate's job next week.

"The job is to respond to what we've been given in the case that was built by the House. They've given us two very weak articles of impeachment," Perdue added.

In its 231-year history, the Senate has heard testimony from witnesses at every impeachment trial it's completed, according to reporting by The Washington Post.