Karl Stefanovic's interview with Cory Bernardi turned fiery, fast.

“What took you so long to man up?” was the first question that came out of Karl Stefanovic’s mouth.

He was interviewing Cory Bernardi on The Today Show on Wednesday morning, following the news the senator had broken free from the Liberal party and would be forming his own party.

Bernardi sighed.

It would be a telling start to an interview in which Bernardi consistently found himself on the back foot, fending off a dogged Stefanovic who wasn’t suffering fools.

Giving a fairly long-winded explanation as to why it took him so long “man up”, Bernardi centred on a familiar rhetoric: this is about the country, he said. He was over party politics.

“People were talking about this for months. Again, what took you so long to man up?” Stefanovic pushed again.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the country.”

Stefanovic then asked whether there was a sense of betrayal or remorse about the fact Bernardi was leaving a party that “made” him. The TV host also pointed out that if it wasn’t an ego thing, why wasn’t there a piece of government legislation Bernardi was publicly opposed to?

Bernardi was clumsy in his reply, regurgitating a narrative about his new party being the best possible result for the country. But he couldn't quite pick a piece of legislation he was opposed to.