Fox News’s Charles Krauthammer ripped Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenPeterson faces fight of his career in deep-red Minnesota district Getting tight — the psychology of cancel culture Tina Smith wins Democratic Senate primary in Minnesota MORE (D-Minn.) on Monday for "his tremendously elaborate theory" around Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, asking, "Who gave him the tinfoil hat?"

Krauthammer's comments came after Franken presented a lengthy hypothetical to former acting Attorney General Sally Yates around Russian connections to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and the 18-day delay between when she made the White House aware of Flynn's apparent lies to top Trump officials and when he tendered his resignation.

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"We're trying to put a puzzle together here, everybody, and maybe, just maybe, he didn't get rid of a guy who lied to the vice president, who got paid by the Russians, who went on Russia Today, because there are other people in his administration who met secretly with the Russians and didn't reveal it until later, until they were caught," Franken posited during the Senate Judiciary Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee’s hearing on Monday.

"That may be why it took him 18 days — until it became public — to get rid of Mike Flynn, who was a danger to this republic."

"Care to comment?" Franken asked Yates.

"I don't think I'm going to touch that, senator," she replied.

"When I heard the senator from Minnesota, Franken, talking about his tremendously elaborate theory, I was thinking, 'Who gave him the tinfoil hat?' " Krauthammer said Monday evening.

"I mean, that's so way out there. It was a great theory. It would make a good novel," he continued. "But show me any evidence, what you've got, people who were involved with Russians, and you get the Russians involved in the election without a shred of evidence connecting them.

"So until you get it, it's a concoction by the Democrats. I'm open to evidence. Show it to me."

President Trump tweeted several times Monday evening that the "Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax" in an apparent reaction to the "Special Report" panel's comments on Yates's testimony.

Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is "no evidence" of collusion w/ Russia and Trump. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017