Russia Accusations a 'Bunch of Nonsense'

The Russia-Trump collusion accusations are a "bunch of nonsense" and need to stop, Trump team member Anthony Scaramucci, the man at the center of a CNN fake news scandal, said Thursday.

"It certainly was nonsense related to me, Scaramucci, the new chief strategy officer of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.

"It's probably nonsense related to others. The big point about the whole thing is that the president has a great agenda for all the American people — Democrats, Republicans, race, color and creed doesn't matter. This president is going to do a phenomenal job for the American people."

Scaramucci was the subject of a CNN story on June 22 that claimed he was linked to a Moscow-controlled bank's $10 billion Russian investment fund. The next day, CNN retracted its story and issued an apology, and the three journalists involved with it resigned. 

"Was it fake news?" Scaramucci said Thursday. "I did meet with a person. I was at the World Economic Forum. I was in a restaurant. The person came over and shook my hand. I think a reporter snapped a picture."

The issue, though, was that the first part of the "fake news was that a potential senior Trump official was meeting with somebody from the Russian sovereign wealth fund," Scaramucci continued.

"That was not a 'meeting, a planned meeting, a strategic meeting,' anything like that. It was really an interaction with him in a restaurant."

First off, Scaramucci said, he thought the whole matter was unfair.

"It's more of this nonsense that goes on in Washington, where you have these scandals incorporated," he said. "We're practicing the policies of personal destruction rather than serving the people."

Scaramucci said he knew in his "heart and soul" he'd done nothing wrong, "so what ends up happening is if you have got good character, you have a strong backbone can you hold yourself up against these people and that's exactly what I did."

Meanwhile, he rejected a statement from "Fox & Friends" co-anchor Ainsley Earhardt that it was "important to get a lawyer and threaten them."

"I think all of that stuff, Ainsley, was exaggerated," Scaramucci said. "I had a couple conversations with senior staff at CNN. I made it very clear to them the story was not accurate and it was a defamatory story, it was not true.

"Needed to be retracted. I didn't go to sue them or anything like that. I think that got a little bit overblown, to be honest."

Scaramucci noted that as a former host of a television show, "Wall Street Week," he does have empathy for journalists when it comes to getting the news out and beating the competition.

"What I do think they have to do now is have more checks and balances in the system," he said. "They have to be more prudent about what they are saying about people because I think you're going to leave your own reputation behind."

Scaramucci also said he spoke with President Donald Trump about the matter, but it's important to keep the conversation private.

"This is the big irony of the president, he has a phenomenal temperament," said Scaramucci. "He is very cool, calm and collected. I think these tweets he puts out are quite strategic."