The scandal over Donald Trump Jr. setting up a 2016 meeting with Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is continuing to unfold, with new details coming out slowly but surely, and the president has now again taken to Twitter to defend his son.
In an early Monday morning outburst, Trump wrote:
‘Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!’
Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2017
Trump and other allies of Donald Jr. have used this same defense other times in the time since news of Trump Jr.’s meeting with Veselnitskaya broke, but it hasn’t gotten any more valid the more times that they have employed the argument.
For one, there are plenty of examples, as many have pointed out in recent days, of the precise opposite of what Trump is saying here being the case. For instance, former Democratic Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore waged a bitter campaign against George W. Bush in the 2000 election, but when he was sent questionable opposition research on his opponent, what did he do? He called the FBI; that’s what.
As journalist Stuart Stevens wrote on Twitter:
‘When Gore campaign was sent Bush debate brief book, they called FBI. If foreign interests offer you info on former SOS, you call the FBI.’
When Gore campaign was sent Bush debate brief book, they called FBI. If foreign interests offer you info on former SOS, you call the FBI.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) July 10, 2017
What was Donald Trump Jr.’s response when he was offered opposition research on political opponents by foreign government interests? Well, the fool literally posted his response on Twitter, in which he tells the man offering him the info, Rob Goldstone, that “if it’s what you say I love it.”
The Trump camp has used another similar defense since the news of Trump Jr.’s meeting broke, namely, that the Clinton campaign also took information from a foreign government, their source simply being the anti-Putin and anti-Trump government of the Ukraine.
That is not correct.
So, in short, no Trump, “most politicians” wouldn’t have taken the meeting that Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort took with that Kremlin-connected lawyer.
Twitter obviously was quick to point this fact out to Trump, and you can check that out below.
No! Most people would have reported the proposition to the FBI.
Only the Trumps would be fool enough to take the meeting. #NiceTryTrump— val broeksmit (@BikiniRobotArmy) July 17, 2017
The only reason it's not treason – because we're not officially at war with Russia.
Yet still,
it's VERY shady.#NiceTryTrump— val broeksmit (@BikiniRobotArmy) July 17, 2017
BREAKING! This is Telling… Why is he so afraid if this is a nothing burger??? https://t.co/pqrnSElMHr
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) July 17, 2017
https://twitter.com/EdwardTHardy/status/886952650805301248
https://twitter.com/EdwardTHardy/status/886953488676245504
Would they then mysteriously forget all of their meetings with representatives of that foreign power, only to suddenly remember later?
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) July 17, 2017
As the investigation into that foreign power's meddling in the election heated up, would they deny it vociferously? https://t.co/0Ghn2ECdGr
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) July 17, 2017
Featured Image via Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg
