Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy knocked MSNBC on Wednesday for its "circular logic" when covering the president and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson interviewed Ruddy about his relationship with President Donald Trump and about his thoughts on where the president stands on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
"I have no information that he is thinking of firing Mueller now," Ruddy said.
"What is he saying, to your view, about the special counsel–what is his mood, what is his thought process," Jackson asked about the president.
"I will give a sense of what he has said publicly on the matter, which is that he thinks the investigation is going to be fair and that he thinks that the investigation is going to be wrapped up fairly soon, that this is not going to go on forever," Ruddy said.
"At the end of the day, Hallie, there no evidence of collusion," Ruddy added. "All of this now–this is a year in a half into this–where's the evidence of collusion?"
"The argument is that nothing has been determined either way so you can't say one way or the other here," Jackson said. "And there is a discussion about the obstruction of justice potentially by the president given his firing of James Comey."
"I love the circular logic here," Ruddy interjected before questioning the reasoning behind endlessly pursuing an investigation in the absence of evidence.
Jackson and Ruddy carried on the debate before shifting to discuss another recent subject of debate: a memo that the House Intelligence Committee recently, on a party-line vote, decided to release to the public. Those who are familiar with the memo say it shows an abuse of surveillance by the Justice Department.
"The releasing of the memo. You heard the president last night walking out of the State of the Union saying 'yes that memo should be released.' It sounds like you are saying 'he should do it,'" Jackson said of comments the president is reported to have made Tuesday night. "He hasn’t even seen it yet, according to the White House."
"How can he release something he hasn’t seen?" Jackson asked.
"I'm not saying the memo should be released; I’m saying the administration generally has been in favor of releasing information so that the public can make a full decision on this," Ruddy said. "You’ve seen time and again a lot of things are being leaked against the president, but when there's information that's exculpatory against him, that doesn't get out to the public."
"You haven’t seen any stories where he's been fighting with the special counsel," Ruddy said.
"We see a lot of stories about his displeasure with the special counsel," Jackson replied.
"Not that he's fighting, not that he is obstructing," Ruddy interjected.
"[Stories] about potentially directing people to order to stop having Bob Mueller do his investigation," Jackson said of a story first reported by the New York Times last week that claimed Trump ordered Mueller fired in June of 2017, but then backed off.
"Again, this is the circular logic at MSNBC," Ruddy said.
"I respectfully disagree with you on that. I think this is fact-based logic, Chris, " Jackson pushed back.
Mixed messages have come out of the White House this week on if and when the House intelligence memo might be released.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on CNN Wednesday morning, "There are no current plans to release the House Intelligence Committee’s memo."
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Fox News radio that the memo would "be released here pretty quick" after national security lawyers finish "slicing and dicing and looking at it so that we know what it means."