MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski told White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders to her face she was "not telling the truth right now" about investigations into alleged ties between the Russians and Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
President Trump set off a firestorm on Tuesday when he fired FBI Director James Comey, leading to Democratic charges it was "Nixonian" given the FBI probe into alleged collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russians in 2016.
Sanders said there was no evidence of any collusion, adding that even MSNBC host Joe Scarborough had said so. Scarborough interrupted, clarifying he said there was no "obvious" evidence of collusion and there needed to be in-depth investigations into the matter.
"What I said was there's nothing obvious there, but doesn't that just prove we need an independent counsel to investigate this?" Scarborough asked.
"Not at all," Sanders said. "Joe, we've had almost an entire year that they have spent. The House committees, the Senate committees, the FBI. Everyone has looked into this, and everybody comes to the same conclusion—"
"You're actually not telling the truth right now," Brzezinski said. "Wow."
"That's a pretty bold claim," Sanders responded.
Scarborough quoted Republican Senators like Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) who have expressed concern about Comey's dismissal.
Sanders said she hoped the Senate concluded its investigation soon and would come "to the same conclusion that everyone else has" that there is no evidence of collusion.
"The investigation, though, has just started, Sarah," Scarborough said.
The Trump administration insisted the firing was done in order to restore confidence in the FBI that had been broken after Comey's mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.