Fallon responds to Trump: He's trying to distract from 'very serious allegations' about Russia

Brian Fallon, Hillary Clinton’s campaign press secretary, charged Wednesday that President Donald Trump is attempting to distract from “very serious allegations” he faces about his campaign’s relationship with Russia.

The Monday ouster of Michael Flynn as Trump’s national security adviser has renewed increased scrutiny of Trump and his posturing toward Russia because of reports that Flynn was in contact with that nation's ambassador before the election. The Trump campaign previously denied any contact with Russia prior to Nov. 8.


Trump weighed in on Twitter on Wednesday morning by trying to shift the blame to Clinton, whose campaign intelligence officials say was targeted by Russian hackers: “This Russian connection nonsense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign,” he said.

That, Fallon told CNN’s Chris Cuomo later that morning, is “nonsense.”

“It’s an attempt to distract, Chris, from very serious allegations that are just the latest shoe to drop in what is becoming an unraveling narrative for the Trump campaign that really threatens the legitimacy of his election,” Fallon said.

Flynn was forced out late Monday in the wake of the news that he had improperly discussed sanctions on Russia with the country’s ambassador before the inauguration and then misled both the public and Vice President Mike Pence about it. The White House has maintained that Flynn’s contacts with Russia were fully appropriate and Flynn was asked to resign because he misled Pence about it.

Still, Trump’s critics have demanded that there be an investigation into the issue as questions about Flynn’s conduct linger. The White House has acknowledged, for example, that it learned that Flynn had mischaracterized his contact with Russia weeks ago, but it waited to act until Monday, after news outlets had reported on it.

Fallon on Wednesday joined calls for a select congressional committee devoted to investigating Russia’s role in the election. He also suggested that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from the case because of his role supporting the Trump campaign.

Fallon did not directly accuse the Trump campaign of it, but he raised the question of whether Flynn had talked to Russia about the cyberattacks on the Clinton campaign (the Trump campaign has unequivocally denied coordinating with Russia on the cyberattacks, and no credible evidence has surfaced to suggest that it did). Regardless, Fallon argued, the issue merits investigation.

“The reason that we can't give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt with all this is because all these contacts between representatives of his campaign and the Russian government were happening while Trump was displaying a troubling pattern of speaking out on Putin's behalf on any number of issues that are completely out of alignment with U.S. foreign policy,” Fallon said. “And also, if there was nothing to these interactions, if they were completely innocent and benign, why did the Trump campaign lie about them?”