After the New York Times broke their bombshell story that Donald Trump attempted to fire Russian investigation special counsel Robert Mueller last summer, the story dominated the news cycle. In response, those close to the president are doing whatever they can to deflect.

CNN on Mueller

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was tapped last year to be the special counsel to the Russian investigation and has since found enough evidence to indict several former and present associates of Donald Trump, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

On Thursday night, just one day after Trump agreed to meet with Mueller for questioning about the Russian investigation, the New York Times reports that back in June the president attempted to fire the special counsel but was stopped after White House counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign. These issues were discussed during a heated conversation during a January 25 broadcast on CNN.

Joining host Chris Cuomo on Thursday night was former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci who lashed out over the New York Times report.

Scaramucci said he never heard that Trump was trying to fire Robert Mueller, saying the report was "totally irrelevant because he actually didn't fire Mueller." "I find it very ironic that this report has come out while he (Trump) is in Davos with great fan fare," he said.

Not stopping there, Anthony Scaramucci accused former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon of possibly leaking the information to the New York Times.

"I would love to get a look at somebody like Steve Bannon' phone records," he added. "Anthony, please," Chris Cuomo replied while being forced to cut in. "Let me finish," Scaramucci said with frustration. "You did finish. Please, it matters too much," Cuomo said. "It can't be a red herring. A red herring is a distraction from what is otherwise important.

This goes to the most important question that we are dealing with," Cuomo went on to say.

Next up

While the White House and associates of the president scramble to come up with a defense, the New York Times cites four sources close to the situation to back up their reporting. As of press time, Donald Trump has not offered a comment on the report as he is currently in Davos, Switzerland where he will soon be attending the World Economic Forum. In addition, Steve Bannon has not issued a response to the allegations made by Anthony Scaramucci that he was the source of the leak.