Former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page made another media appearance, this time on CNN’s Smerconish Saturday morning to address the network’s new report that suggests Russian spies attempted to use Page, either with his knowledge or unknowingly, as a back-channel to higher-ups in the Trump campaign. Throughout the nine-minute interview, Michael Smerconish grilled Page, asking him “whether he cared the Russians helped Donald Trump win the election” or if he has given any thought to the fact that he may have, even accidentally, contributed to Russia sticking “a black hand” into the United States election process.
“The bigger meddling in the election was what was done against me,” says Carter Page https://t.co/2NseLGraMF https://t.co/Pj0Tm19d3v
— CNN (@CNN) April 22, 2017
Page deflected Smerconish’s questions, pointing rather to the fact that he is far more concerned with alleged illegal invasions of privacy, adding that “the bigger meddling in the election is what has been done against me.” Page has emerged as one of the most prominent names mentioned, be it in what Page calls the “dodgy dossier” or in similar reports alongside former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Each media appearance seems more questionable as details continue to emerge about what impact the Russians had in November’s election. Recently it was revealed that the FBI received a secret court order to surveil Page in the summer of 2016 based on probable cause that Page was “acting as an agent of a foreign power.”
As the walls close in on Page, the Trump campaign continues to distance themselves him. Most recently, Trump’s former Communications Director Jason Miller belittled the former military officer’s role during the campaign, referring to him as “an idiot.” Sooner, or later, either Carter Page or the FBI is going to be on the right side of this issue. For now, it’s a game of “he said, they said.”