Washington (CNN) A New York Times reporter said President Donald Trump called him last year to insist that Russia was falsely accused of election interference.

Times' reporter David Sanger told CNN Thursday that he was the reporter Trump telephoned from Air Force One while on his way back from Germany after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin face-to-face for the first time.

"'Vladimir Putin told me,' (Trump) said, 'that it couldn't have been the Russians who hacked into the (Democratic National Committee) because they're so good at cyber that they wouldn't have been caught,'" Sanger recalled on "New Day" with CNN's Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. "And he said he was really impressed by that argument."

Sanger said he then pointed out on that July 2017 call that the US intelligence community had concluded in January 2017 that Putin had personally ordered the hacks into the DNC in 2016.

According to Sanger, Trump replied, 'How I could possibly believe it? That came from (former FBI Director James) Comey, that came from (former CIA Director John) Brennan, that came from (former Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper, they're all political hacks.'"

Read More