Senator pushes back on Trump's claim
begin quote from:
Trump said it's 'commonly agreed' his campaign didn't collude with Russia. Senator King doesn't think so.
Angus King: No basis for Trump's claim it's 'commonly agreed' campaign didn't collude with Russia
Story highlights
- King said it's certainly not commonly agreed upon in the Senate intelligence committee
- Trump took to Twitter on Sunday morning
Washington (CNN)Despite
President Donald Trump's claim that it is "commonly agreed" that his
campaign did not collude with Russia during last year's election, Senate
intelligence committee member Angus King said there's still plenty of
investigating left to do.
"No, I don't think so," the Maine independent said when asked on CNN's "State of the Union" whether Trump's claim was correct.
"It's
certainly not commonly agreed in our committee, and we're the ones
doing the investigation," he said, referring to his panel's
investigation into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election. "I
don't think there's any basis for that statement. It's entirely possible
that we may end up in the investigation at the end that there wasn't,
but the contrary could also be true."
On
Friday, Trump tweeted, "It is now commonly agreed, after many months of
COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump.
Was collusion with HC!"
King, whose panel is
conducting one of several investigations into Russia's meddling in the
election, said the committee will still be reviewing evidence for
months, calling Trump's declaration "premature."
On
Sunday morning, Trump took to Twitter again to slam the the Russia
investigation, which is being led in the Justice Department by special
counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, as well as a related
dossier of allegations against Trump that he has repeatedly said is not
true.
As talk about the the first
charges being filed in the Mueller investigation dominated the news
Sunday, White House special counsel Ty Cobb said Trump's morning tweets
about the Russia investigation were not related to the Justice
Department special counsel's activities.
"Contrary
to what many have suggested, the President's comments today are
unrelated to the activities of the special counsel, with whom he
continues to cooperate," Cobb told CNN, declining to comment further on
the tweets.
In his interview Sunday with CNN's Jake Tapper, King added the news about charges being filed in the Russia investigation, which CNN reported Friday, are "just the beginning."
"I
think it's important to emphasize that whatever it is, it's just the
beginning, and I'm sure there will be additional evidence, assuming
Director Mueller uncovers additional evidence," he said.
King,
who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, also said he thought the
timing of calls for Mueller to resign from the investigation and the
news of indictments in that probe were probably not a coincidence.
"I
don't see any reason why he should recuse himself or be fired," King
said. "The fact that these charges are coming at kind of a crescendo at a
very time there it appears they're also indictments, to be forthcoming,
there is a kind of coincidence there that I don't think you can miss."
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