John Dickerson On Trump Ties To Russia: 'Contacts Don't Necessarily Mean Collusion'
Philadelphia (CBS) - John Dickerson, the moderator of CBS' "Face the Nation," talked with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the swirling rumors and investigation into the ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and the Russians, saying there are credible arguments to be made on both sides.
Dickerson pointed out that Trump and his team have long been ridiculed for their lack of organization, which would cast doubt on their ability to carry out a wide-ranging conspiracy with a foreign power.
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"They do say over at the White House that they were criticized for not even being able to get a field office up in Iowa during the campaign. So if they weren't able to do that, how could they create this network with the Russians? Also, a lot of the reporting shows a lot of these efforts by Michael Flynn were an effort to create a back channel with the Russians after the election or towards the end of the election and if they had this relationship, why would they have had to create a channel for communication?"
However, he also noted that real ties do exist between members of his administration or campaign staff with the Russians.
"There are, between Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, these contacts, and you notice the president has started saying there's no collusion between President Trump and the Russians, which is a bit of a shift from there was no collusion at all between the campaign and the Russians. If nothing else, he is being more prudent in the ways he's talking about it, which allows for the fact that there were indeed contacts, but contacts, at this point, don't necessarily mean there was any kind of collusion."
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Dickerson also addressed speculation that Trump could pick former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman as the next director of the FBI, doubting that the news would go over well with Democrats.
"Apparently, he's in the mix. I think there would definitely be a lot of Democratic opposition to him because of the sour grapes over both his support for the Iraq War, which, just to remind, is the thing that President Trump says is the greatest national security disaster in modern American history, and then also Joe Lieberman's support for John McCain. So, I don't know how that would all play out."