CNN host Chris Cuomo and White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah did extensive battle Monday morning on "New Day," tangling over Russia, the FBI and the Trump administration's relationship with both.
In the nearly 20-minute exchange, Cuomo pressed Shah on President Donald Trump's attitude toward the U.S. intelligence reports of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Cuomo said Trump had been weak on Russia in comparison to his treatment of other countries, at one point claiming, "He won't even acknowledge that they interfered in the election."
Shah repeatedly told Cuomo to check the transcript, pointing to Trump's trip to Vietnam in November when he was asked about Vladimir Putin's denials of Kremlin interference in the election.
"I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election," Trump said. "As to whether or not I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership. I believe in our intel agencies, our intelligence agencies. I've worked with them very strongly."
Shah tweeted out a link afterward of the remarks Trump gave where he said he believed in the intelligence agencies, demonstrating Cuomo was incorrect to claim Trump had never acknowledged Russian interference.
On @NewDay, I challenged @ChrisCuomo to show viewers transcript of @POTUS talking about Russia election meddling in a recent trip to Asia. Here's the transcript: "I believe very much in our intelligence agencies." pic.twitter.com/ZY1m1OFtAI
— Raj Shah (@RajShah45) January 29, 2018
Cuomo also brought up the Washington Post report that Trump asked former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who he voted for in the 2016 election when they met shortly after Trump's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey in May.
Shah said he was told by those in the room that Trump did not use those words and the meeting in question was one in which McCabe was being promoted to acting director, a position he would hold from May until August.
"He was promoting him to become the acting director of the FBI in that very same meeting," Shah said.
Shah and Cuomo also had a heated exchange over Hillary Clinton's interview with the FBI concerning the investigation into her private email server and the removal of Peter Strzok from the Russia probe for his political biases.
"He was in the room interviewing her in an interview in which they did not put her on the record," Shah said.
"It wasn't that she wasn't on the record. She was on the record. She wasn't under oath," Cuomo said. "But it doesn't matter, Raj, because they're all federal agents, so you're wrong. You're putting something out there because it suits you, but it's not accurate.
"Chris, you can scream from the rooftop at CNN, but the facts are the facts. The man was removed from the case for political bias," Shah said.
Cuomo said it did not matter, whether Clinton was under oath or not, because lying to a federal agent is a crime regardless.
"There was a transcript of the proceeding," Cuomo said.
"There wasn't," Shah said.
"Of course she was on the record when they did it," Cuomo said.
"Show me the transcript," Shah said.
"You find it! You're in the government. You should show us all these things instead of playing cat and mouse with this memo," Cuomo said. "Put it out. Let us judge it."
Cuomo was wrong about there being a full transcript of the FBI's interview of Clinton. According to NBC News, the FBI doesn't produce verbatim transcripts of its investigative interviews. Rather, the FBI released notes about its interview with Clinton in 2016:
The release detailed the FBI’s 3.5-hour interview with Clinton on July 2 and the FBI's memo to the Justice Department recommending that no one be prosecuted.
The FBI does not produce verbatim transcripts of its investigative interviews. Under the FBI's long-standing policy, agents do not make audio or video recordings of their interviews. Instead, summaries of the interviews are written on FBI Form 302, and have come to be known as "302's."
An FBI policy paper explains that "the presence of recording equipment may interfere with and undermine the successful rapport-building interviewing technique which the FBI practices.
UPDATE: 3:57 P.M.: This article was updated with additional information about Cuomo's questions.