CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Sen. Mark Warner for evidence that the Trump campaign accepted help from a foreign adversary to win the 2016 presidential race.
Mr. Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, cited a report released by the committee last week that found Russia “massively interfered in our elections,” not only “to sow disarray, but to help Trump and to hurt Clinton.”
But Mr. Tapper said the big question is still whether Russia did so “with the assistance or participation of any American, especially and including people who are in the Trump campaign’s orbit.”
“That is clearly the endpoint question that we’re going to have to deal with,” the Virginia Democrat responded.
“But have you seen any evidence of that?” Mr. Tapper shot back.
Mr. Warner pointed to the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. He said the meeting shows the Trump campaign was “receptive to these kinds of offers” and may be indicative of a “pattern.”
“Now, did the president know about that meeting or not? I don’t know,” Mr. Warner said. “I’d like to get the answer to that.”
“Still, as far as the public knows,” Mr. Tapper said, “no evidence of anybody in the Trump team accepting the offers of help, no evidence of actual conspiracy that we know of yet, that we in the public know of yet. And you’re not willing to comment on whether or not you’ve seen evidence of that conspiracy.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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