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Hugh Hewitt: 'I don't do gotcha questions'
03:27 - Source: CNN

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Hugh Hewitt calls Donald Trump "the best interview in America" after being accused of nailing the front-runner with "gotcha" questions

But Hewitt also told CNN Tuesday that his job is to vet candidates for Republican primary voters

Washington CNN  — 

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday defended his interview with Republican front-runner Donald Trump by saying he presses all the Republican candidates with tough questions.

“I love Donald Trump, he’s the best interview in America,” Hewitt told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.”

Last week, Trump lashed out at Hewitt as “third rate” after stumbling through a series of the radio host’s questions about foreign leaders, ISIS and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

“The unfortunate part is when you do phone interviews, sometimes people hear things differently. I think [Trump] genuinely did hear Quds as Kurds, so that was fine,” Hewitt said of Trump’s confusing of the Kurdish minority in Iraq and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

RELATED: Eight memorable ‘gotcha’ moments on the campaign trail

Hewitt is scheduled to pepper the GOP candidates with questions on Sept. 16 at the CNN Republican debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

“Our job, or at least my job at the debate, is to ask questions that allow Republican primary voters to decide who’s best positioned to win in 2016 and to be a very successful Reagan-like commander in chief in 2017,” the radio host said Tuesday.