Donald Trump Jr. told Sean Hannity, “I probably would have done things a little differently” if he had the chance to get damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government again. But Trump Jr. suggested that was only because of the optics. He never indicated any regret for having tried to collude with an adversary government that meddled in our election.
As you probably know by now, Trump Jr. has offered a shifting set of explanations for meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who promised oppo information on Clinton. His latest explanation, as seen on the Hannity show Tuesday night, was ignorance. “This is the first time we’ve done any of this,” he said, “I’m still way in the learning curve.”
So, after originally saying that he met with Natalia Veselnitskaya to discuss Russian adoptions, Trump Jr. now freely admitted his real goal was to get what had been described in an email to him as “very high level and sensitive information” about Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
On Hannity, Trump Jr. seemed to suggest that he thought the email was hinting at Clinton’s involvement with the Russian government, not that the Russian government was trying to collude.
TRUMP JR.: I’d been reading about scandals that people were probably under-reporting for a long time so maybe it was something that had to do with one of those things. I mean this was her, perhaps, involvement with the Russian government, so again, I didn’t know if there was any credibility, I didn’t know if there was anything behind it. … I can’t help what someone sends me.
But he could help what he did after he received the email. And what he did was to agree to a meeting and get the campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his brother-in-law to join in.
Trump Jr. tried to justify his willingness to take the information from the Russian government by saying that nobody was talking about Russia’s interference in the election then. So how was he supposed to know he shouldn’t have done it?
TRUMP JR.: This is pre – like, Russia fever. This is pre-Russia mania … I don’t even think my sirens went up, the antennas went up at this time because it wasn’t the issue that it’s been made out to be … since it really became a thing so there is an element of context to that. At the time, it wasn’t this big news story.
Trump Jr. even admitted he probably did press lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya for Hillary dirt “because the pretext of the meeting was, ‘Hey, I have information about your opponent.’”
However, Trump told Hannity, “In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently.”
A little differently? What minor detail would he have changed? Hannity didn’t ask.
We can probably conclude, though, from Part 2 of the interview, that it’s only the optics Trump would redo.
TRUMP JR.: I think in the grand scheme of the hysteria that’s been talked about over the last eight, nine, ten months with Russia, things are probably different than they were 13 months ago when yeah, there were a couple of people talking about it and they just sort of launched this notion.
In other words, he’s not sorry he tried to get the oppo research from the Russian government, only that people are making a big deal about it.
In fact, Trump Jr. thought it was quite possible he met with other Russians.
TRUMP JR.: I don’t even know, I’ve probably met with other people from Russia but certainly not in the context of actual or formalized meeting or anything like that because why would I? You know, in the grand scheme of things, how busy we were?
Trump Jr. also said he never told his father about the meeting because “It was such a nothing…I wouldn’t even have remembered it.”
So even now, Trump Jr. thinks his behavior was no biggie.
Hannity claimed he wanted to “ask every question I could think of regarding this issue." In Part 2, he said, "I can’t think of any more, in all honesty."
Whenever Hannity says “in all honesty,” check your wallet. Or in this case, the interview. Because there are plenty of questions Hannity didn’t ask. For example: Why, after U.S. intelligence agencies found that Russia had meddled in our elections, didn’t Trump Jr. report this attempt to co-opt him? Why didn’t Trump Jr. properly explain why he met with Veselnitskaya when he was originally asked? Did he ever meet with any non-Russians acting on behalf of Russia or did any such people try to meet with him?
Probably, the reason Hannity couldn’t think of any more questions was because he was so eager to move on to attacking Hillary Clinton as the real law breaker (I’ll have more on that later), as if she were sitting in the Oval Office and not some irrelevant ex-candidate now.
Watch the whole interview below, from the July 11, 2017 Hannity.
“The advantage that Trump has today that Nixon did not is the power of the right wing media of talk radio, Fox News, and social media…….”
And don’t forget about A SYMPATHETIC SUPREME COURT as well doors17. Keep in mind: it was ONLY after the Supreme Court UNANIMOUSLY UPHELD the late John Sirica’s lower Washington DC district court ruling (i.e. that Nixon had to turn over more White House tape recordings to the special prosecutor) that the prosecution got the SMOKING GUN EVIDENCE to nail Nixon’s ass and FORCE him to resign. Remember: Nixon CONSTANTLY REFUSED to turn over these tape recordings via his nonstop “executive privilege” whining.
I also believe no matter how damaging the facts could be that the Republican-controlled Congress will do nothing in response, except maybe a naughty, naughty, shame on you soft-spoken lecture blaming mostly the Democrats for wasting money on what will be called a witch hunt from now until the crack of doom by Trump supporters.
Possible impeachment? Not happening. The charges will never be allowed to come up for a vote. Not with the R’s having a 47 seat majority in the House where articles of impeachment will never get into or pass committee. If by some miracle the House does vote for impeachment then the math isn’t there to reach the needed 67 votes in the Senate for conviction. The Senators from the Confederate States and Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Kansas, and both Dakota’s will never under any circumstances allow it to happen unless the public overwhelmingly demands it, as what happened with Nixon in ’74 who had a 22% approval rating when he resigned after Barry Goldwater told him to either resign or most certainly be impeached.
The advantage that Trump has today that Nixon did not is the power of the right wing media of talk radio, Fox News, and social media. They will rally the troops and I just don’t believe we’ll see the 35% of solid Trump supporters budging.
So, if I understand this correctly,
Junior’s “not sorry” for doing something (colluding) because he and the Fauxites think its OK (a “nothingburger”) . . . even though he lawyered up in response (with an attorney experienced in criminal defense of money-laundering) . . . and seems desperate to blame anybody else (Hillary, Obama) for this “nothingburger.”
Makes perfect sense.
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The Trump Crime Family is an existential threat to the security of America. This cannot be said enough.
We’ll never know what really was discussed in the meeting but even if it was a bait and switch to discuss Russian adoption policy – and we know Donny has lied about this in the past – Putin got his answer the Trump campaign was open to their feeding him, directly and indirectly, illegally hacked dirt.
The SVR isn’t going to open their negotiations sending in a top Russian official. No, they’ll use someone they can easily cut bait with.
The Russians are huge investors in the Trump empire according to MSNBC. The Trumps have taken out huge loans from a corrupt Russian bank known to launder money. How hard would it be moving forward for the SVR to leverage these business contacts to coordinate efforts to beat Hillary? Such contacts would look normal and fall under the msm, U.S. intel radar.
Soon after this meeting coincidentally Trump made a speech announcing he had a giant turd he was going to dump on crooked Hillary. Sure Donny Jr. never talked to daddy.
He appears to be entirely oblivious to the possibility that cooperating in a conspiracy
It’s no secret that Pie loves Putin, a Russian dictator. Pie would defend Putin and his communist friends in a heartbeat.
U.S. military leaders need to reconsider their support of this Red clown. It would be highly embarrassing to associate the troops with a man who loves foreign dictators. Veterans and military families should not be associating with this old media hack.
It’s time for the masses to call talk radio stations nationwide with this script. Change if needed:
“Thanks for taking my call. This collusion with Russian government officials, who federal authorities say was responsible for the hackings during our presidential election, is very troubling. We have people in the media who supposedly support our military, but at the same time, also support Russian dictators. Personally, I don’t trust anyone who sides, or works with the Russians. It’s an insult to our military, and every military personnel and military family out there should re-evaluate their support of any media people who sides with the Russians. I would turn them off and read a newspaper.”
