“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace fact-checked Democratic Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes on Russia collusion during a live interview Sunday.
WATCH:
Wallace began the segment by quoting something that Himes said to his hometown paper, the Hartford Courant.
“I’m not sure I would break out a lot of champagne. They try to make the case that the Mueller report says there’s no evidence of collusion. There’s plenty of evidence,” Himes said. (RELATED: Jim Himes Won’t Answer Yes Or No Question About Russian Collusion)
But Wallace was quick to remind Himes that what we know of the report so far refutes that definitively.
“That’s not what the Mueller report says, it does not say there’s plenty of evidence of collusion,” he said.
Himes wasn’t ready to concede, however, saying, “First of all, nobody knows what the Mueller report says, because nobody’s seen it … If you read the letter, the Barr letter says that the investigation was not able to …”
Wallace interrupted, “No, excuse me. With all due respect, sir, that’s absolutely incorrect. I’m going to put up on the screen because we know that this probably was going to come up, the specific quote from Attorney General Barr. Here’s what he says: ‘The special counsel did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts despite multiple offers from Russian affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.'”
“So specifically the special counsel is not saying there is insufficient evidence to prosecute. He’s saying it didn’t happen,” Wallace concluded.
Himes kept pushing, arguing that Mueller’s report wouldn’t be nearly 400 pages long if he had truly found nothing.
“Number one, whatever happened, and there’s 400 pages of report that we are going to see, so something happened or it wouldn’t be 400 pages long. But whatever happened, the conclusion is that it’s not a chargeable offense,” he argued. (RELATED: Top Ranking Democrat Says Mueller Report Doesn’t Matter: ‘We Know There Was Collusion’)
But Wallace wasn’t sure that really backed up Himes’ initial statement.
“No, again, sir, respectfully, he didn’t say it’s not a chargeable offense,” he countered. “He said the report did not find that the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated. On the issue of obstruction, he said I’ve got some issues as to whether it’s a prosecutable offense. He didn’t say that when it came to collusion.”
Himes continued to argue, claiming that a finding of no collusion did not mean that there was truly no evidence of collusion.