any one affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities, i have been called a surrogate a time or two in that campaign and i didn't have communications with the russians and i'm unable to comment on it. >> so he was asked about that during his confirmation hearings. and that was the exchange with senator al franken. flat-out says he didn't have communications with the russians. you're saying that's not true? >> that's not true. and aside from spoken words in the hearing, he had to answer questions in writing, including one from senator leahy asked did you have contacts with russians in the campaign, answer a single word, no. whether -- how to characterize