MSNBC host of the The 11th Hour, Stephanie Ruhle, did a touchdown dance on her Thursday show in response to GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy’s admission that they have no evidence of direct payments to President Joe Biden from son Hunter’s business operations. At the same time, the Lincoln Project’s Stuart Stevens declared the party’s focus reeked of “basic hollowness and absurdity,” but nobody ever explained how Langworthy’s statement unwittingly debunked the larger point about influence peddling.

Ruhle began by introducing a clip of Langworthy on Fox News with Washington correspondent Gillian Turner of the following discussion:

GILLIAN TURNER: There has not been produced a smoking gun. Clear cut undeniable proof of the president’s involvement with his son’s foreign business deals. What do you say to that? 

NICK LANGWORTHY: Well, we’ve never claimed that we have direct money going to the president.

TURNER: That is precisely the claim that the chairman of your committee, James Comer, and also Jim Jordan, have made many times on public record.