Rep. Sean Duffy insistence Friday that there is "no evidence of collusion" between Russia and President Donald Trump, sparked a heated argument with CNN's "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo, who defended news reports about the topic.
"The cable news networks are aflame of running stories about collusion between Trump and Russia and you don't know and I don't know that," the Wisconsin Republican told Cuomo.
"What I think is happening is, there is a conversation about collusion. And my point is, there is no evidence of collusion."
Duffy and Cuomo also sparred over a New York Times report concerning a memo written by former FBI Director James Comey detailing a dinner during which Trump allegedly asked him to stop the FBI's investigation into then-national security adviser Michael Flynn.
"What information do we have about this memo?" Duffy said. "All you have is a phone call to The New York Times, an undisclosed person, an undisclosed memo. We should be able to evaluate the credibility of the person who makes a statement to the New York Times.
"We should be able to look at the full context of the memo. We have none of that information, Chris, and to jump to conclusions about influencing, that's a far reach."
Duffy said what he does know is that Washington "is leaking like a sieve."
"President Trump can't have a conversation with the president of Mexico without it being leaked," said Duffy. "There can't be a conversation with a foreign diplomat without that conversation being leaked. There are no secrets."
But if there is evidence of collusions, Duffy said, he'd like to come back and talk about it, but until then, he thinks "the news media is jumping the gun and talking about collusion when we don't have any evidence.
"Don't say it doesn't exist," Cuomo shot back. "Just say we don't know, and would you agree that calling it a witch hunt and a hoax at this point is also wrong?"
Duffy responded: "You're splicing my words in that there is no public evidence today . . . there could be private evidence, there is no public evidence. You don't have any and I don't have any. That's the point I'm making."
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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