Anthony Scaramucci said Sunday he accepts President Donald Trump "at his word" that he didn't know beforehand about a meeting between his oldest son and Russians promising dirt on campaign rival Hillary Clinton, and he doesn't understand why the president's former attorney, Michael Cohen, would have leaked something like that.
"I was in the campaign during that period of time," Scaramucci, who later served briefly as the president's communications director, told CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper. "There was a major flurry of activity...you have to remember, we were understaffed on that campaign, we were underfunded relative to Secretary [Hillary] Clinton's campaign as well. So to me it's very possible, and I take the president at his word, that he did not know about the meeting."
Scaramucci said that during the campaign, there was a "major flurry of activity," and in June 2016, when the meeting occurred, there was work going on, including with Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, to make sure the president's electoral success was going to be matched at the Republican National Convention.
"We were counting delegates and we wanted to make sure there wasn't some kind of insurrection, so there was a massive amount of activity around that, very, very little activity away from that," said Scaramucci.
He said he does think Trump could have known about the meeting after the fact.
"I think that Donald Trump Jr. said last year, the meeting was about 20 minutes," said Scaramucci. "They thought they were going in for one thing. It turned out to be a completely other thing...I do think it's possible."
Meanwhile, Trump's current attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has branded Cohen as a "liar" after a tape of him speaking to Trump about a hush payment to a former Playboy model. Scaramucci did not join in that label, but he did say there has certainly been a breach in their relationship.
"I had known Michael for 10 years, known the president for a very long time and my guess was that they were very loyal to each other," said Scaramucci.
However, he pointed out that matters likely changed when Cohen's home and offices were raided by the FBI, and he does agree that there was probably more included on the released tape.
"I think the president is trying to make the point and Mayor Giuliani is making the point that it seems like the tape was cut off, that there was more dialogue there," said Scaramucci. "The president thinks it was more favorable to him."
He said he does think the rift will continue between Trump and Cohen, but he doesn't think the tape reveals criminal activity.
"I think the president is frustrated because he's got a great economic plan going," said Scaramucci. "He's got great things going on whether it's in North Korea, the potentiality of a deal with the EU now. So this is one of those sidetracking things."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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