Sen. Warner Fires Back at Bizarre Trump Attack: ‘Of Course I Contacted the FBI’ After Foreign Outreach

Virginia Democrat and Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Senator Mark Warner fired back at a bizarre and false attack by President Donald Trump by stating, “of course I contacted the FBI” after his contacts with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch.

In an apparent attempt to rationalize controversial comments about accepting foreign election interference, Trump fired off a series of tweets Thursday morning, including one in which he attacked Warner by writing, “When Senator @MarkWarnerVA spoke at length, and in great detail, about extremely negative information on me, with a talented entertainer purporting to be a Russian Operative, did he immediately call the FBI? NO, in fact he didn’t even tell the Senate Intelligence Committee…”

CNN’s Manu Raju asked Warner about that false attack, and although Warner was as confused as the reporter, he tried to sort it out.

“This morning the president tweeted that you should have contacted the FBI after being contacted by some hoaxter, what is he talking about?” Raju asked.

“I don’t have any idea, I think he’s talking about actually something that happened with Mr. Schiff,” Warner said, referencing Trump’s confusion between a prank call that was made to Schiff (and was reported to law enforcement) and Warner’s contact with the lobbyist to try and arrange witness testimony for his committee with Christopher Steele.

“But I would say this, when I had contact with someone that, that’s been reported, first thing I did was, of course I contacted the FBI,” Warner said. He also notified the members of his committee, contrary to Trump’s attack.

“Republicans this morning are also equating Christopher Steele’s work as a former British agent, and his effort to help take up dirt in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, saying she should have contacted the FBI. Is there even an analogy here?” Raju asked.

“I would say on going forward basis, if there are foreign agents trying to intervene in our election, there are to be an affirmative obligation for any presidential candidate to report to the FBI,” Warner said.

Fusion GPS, the firm that produced the Steele dossier, was hired on behalf of the Clinton campaign through a law firm. But according to the Clinton campaign at the time, they learned of the existence of the Steele dossier when it was published by Buzzfeed, at which point the FBI already had possession of the information.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.