Anderson Cooper confronted former Trump campaign advisor (a title that ended up being disputed by the Trump campaign) Carter Page for over 20 minutes tonight over the role he had in the campaign and the nature of a meeting he had with the Russian ambassador in the news this week.

Cooper brought up how Page had denied last month that he had meetings with any Russian officials, but then last night he said on MSNBC “I do not deny” meeting Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Cooper said, “That sounds like you were misleading.”

Page told him it was not a formal meeting, it was simply him saying hi, and it lasted for no more than “ten seconds.”

Cooper then tried to drill down exactly what role he played in the campaign, considering how he went from being named as a campaign foreign policy advisor to the campaign denying he actually wasn’t an advisor. Page said that he never briefed Trump, but he was at rallies.

Cooper brought up how he had implied in remarks in Russia that he had been in meetings with Trump. Page said in the context of what he was saying he was talking about being in the room when Trump was discussing foreign policy and other matters during those rallies.

Cooper said at one point, “They said you weren’t part of it to begin wtih, which is just weird.”

Page denied that he had been sent cease and desists, as The Daily Caller reports today, that he “misrepresented” his role on the campaign. He insisted to Cooper multiple times that there are lies being told about him.

Cooper pressed him on whether he talked to anyone in Russia last year about the campaign or hacking or Hillary Clinton. Page adamantly said no.

He also defended the letter he sent the DOJ accusing the Clinton campaign of engaging in a hate crime against him because he’s a male, a veteran, and a Roman Catholic.

But Cooper also grilled him over and over, with increasing bewilderment, over whether he thinks that Russia interferes in the political affairs of other nations. Page said he really doesn’t give that subject much thought. They went back and forth on this for a while and Cooper asked, “You honestly can say you don’t know anything about whether Russia meddles in the internal political affairs of other countries?”

Watch the entire interview above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]