Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci defended President Trump’s views on Russia in a contentious interview on CNN Wednesday.

WATCH:

Trump received a lot of criticism after saying he gives credit to both sides — the U.S. intelligence community and Russian president Vladimir Putin — during a news conference on Monday. Trump explained on Tuesday that he does believe the IC and “misspoke” when he said he doesn’t see why Russia would meddle in the 2016 election.

Scaramucci argued that Trump deserves credit for trying to deescalate the Russia situation even if his rhetoric isn’t always perfect, asserting, “We may not like the messaging. You know, there’s an expression in basketball, sometimes people are playing the man when they need to play the ball.”

CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota questioned if the “real” Trump is the Trump who was “riffing” in Helsinki or the Trump who was reading from a script on Tuesday.

“Well, they’re both the real Trump,” Scaramucci responded. “You’re going into Chris Cuomo territory, just so you know.”

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