Senator Coons' Statement on Sean Spicer Mischaracterizing His Comments on Potential Collusion between the Trump Campaign, Russian Officials

Statement

U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) released the following statement after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer today blatantly mischaracterized Senator Coons' previous comments on Fox News Sunday about potential collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Spicer misleadingly quoted only a select portion of Senator Coons' previous statements, in which Sen. Coons said "I have no evidence of collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Senator Coons' full quote, which Spicer failed to provide, is: "I have no hard evidence of collusion. I think what hard evidence there may be will be discovered either through a full release of President Trump's financial interests and concerns and taxes, or the intercepts that I believe our intelligence community and FBI have of conversations between and among Russian officials, and that's why I think it's important for us to get to the bottom of this so that we're not still talking about this as an unresolved issue where we don't know the answer months from now."

"I'm disappointed that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer today mischaracterized comments I made earlier this month in his attempt to defend President Trump against allegations of potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. For Mr. Spicer's sake, let me be clear once again: Though I have not seen specific evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, there is quite a bit of circumstantial evidence that suggests collusion may have occurred, including confirmation just this morning that the FBI is investigating potential collusion between the campaign and Russian officials.

"From the firings of Campaign Manager Paul Manafort and National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn over troubling ties to Russia to the President's refusal to release his tax returns and his unfounded accusation that he was "wire tapped" by President Obama, President Trump and his team have refused every opportunity to allay concerns of inappropriate Russian ties. Indeed, they have fostered those concerns, knowingly or not.

"I have worked earnestly to ensure that Congress investigates these concerns in an honest, thorough, and most importantly, bipartisan way. That is how I will continue to approach this issue. I also believe strongly that the FBI and both the House and Senate Intelligence Committee investigations must have access to all evidence. The American people deserve to know the truth about whether or not senior members of the president's campaign collaborated with Russian hacking of our 2016 election.

"Mr. Spicer would do well to quote me accurately and fully in the future."

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