Watch Replay: Sean Spicer Defends White House On Wiretapping Claims And FBI Investigation

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a briefing with reporters Monday afternoon.

At the same time, FBI Director James Comey is testifying before Congress on Russia and its ties to the 2016 election. Judge Neil Gorsuch also appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday to begin hearings for his appointment to the Supreme Court.

Comey specifically said that the Justice Department had no evidence to support Trump's claims, and NSA Director Michael Rogers said the same thing. The question now is: Will the White House finally retract the claims, given its own intelligence officials denial of them?

The answer? Nope.

Spicer said in his opening comments that we learned nothing new about the Russian investigation, since other officials have said that no evidence exists tying Trump associates to the Kremlin's espionage. Nevertheless, Comey did confirm that the FBI investigated the Trump campaign, which the White House had doubted

Spicer also tried to downplay the importance of some of Trump's associates who have had direct ties to Russia. Of Paul Manafort, Spicer said, he “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” in the campaign.

Manafort was the campaign's chairman. He joined the team in March (though Spicer incorrectly said June) and left in mid-August.

Asked whether the president still has confidence in the FBI director, Spicer said there's no reason to think Trump's view on that matter has changed. Despite the fact that Comey denied that the FBI has any evidence Obama surveilled Trump, Spicer said the investigation would continue.

On the continued investigations of Trump's campaign, Spicer tried to dismiss its importance.

"There's an assumption that because there's an investigation, it's about something," he said.

He noted that everyone who has commented on the matter who has been briefed on the investigation has said that there's no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Spicer was also asked about the fact that President Trump has played golf frequently in his short presidency, despite his former criticisms of Obama for doing the same thing. He said the president has done official business on the golf course, like meeting with the Chinese president.

He said it's about "how you use the game of golf."

however, he didn't note how Trump's habits might have been different from Obama's habits.

He also tried to cast suspicion on connections between Russia and Democrats, saying that such questions have been ignored. However, there's no indication that the FBI has investigated the DNC or any Democrats as related to Russian espionage. And, as is widely accepted, Democrats were the victim of the hacking.

One reporter asked about how the president was helping to contribute to budget-cutting at the White House specifically. Spicer said he's looking at the issue, holistically, not just at the White House.

Spicer also denied that the two major headlines of the day were about Comey's testimony on the wiretapping claims and the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign. He said the leaks coming from the administration, and the DNC's refusal to allow the FBI to look at its hacked files, were topics that needed more investigation.

As is common, the briefing began more than 10 minutes late. Watch a replay of the proceedings here.

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