President Donald Trump called the Russia bounty-gate another "hoax" concocted by Democrats and their newspaper partners.
"I think it's a hoax," Trump told Fox Business' Blake Berman in an exclusive interview at the White House on Wednesday. "I think it's a hoax by the newspapers and the Democrats."
Trump noted the lack of verification of the claim Russia was paying the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American soldiers and the lack of consensus among intelligence agencies.
"I agree with the intelligence people," Trump added. "I think frankly that many of the intelligence people didn't think it was something that even happened. And if it did happen, the Russians would hear about it and anybody else would hear about it that was involved."
Trump reminded Berman of his administration's actions during his first term that have been pro-U.S. military.
"There's never been anybody so strong, so good to our military," he said. "I have spent more money, we have a brand new beautiful military. When I took over, it was depleted, it was a mess. And the greatest asset we have in our military is our men and women, our soldiers, our sailors, all of the people in our military, and I'm here to protect them. But this was something that never got presented to me and they know that.
"Never got presented because it didn't rise to that level."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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