While many on Fox News have been downplaying Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian agent, one Fox guest took it a step further and suggested it proved his innocence.
The discussion began with a rather damning clip of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asking Christopher Wray, during his FBI Director confirmation hearing, whether Trump Jr. should have taken the meeting with a lawyer who supposedly had “very high level and sensitive information” about Hillary Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
GRAHAM: Well, let me ask you this. If I got a call from somebody saying the Russian government wants to help Lindsey Graham get re-elected, they’ve got dirt on Lindsey Graham’s opponent, should I take that meeting?
WRAY: I would think you would want to consult with some good legal advisers before you did that.
Rather than consider the implications of the likely future head of the FBI suggesting that Trump Jr. did something wrong, Faulkner brought on attorney Jonna Spilbor to help exonerate him.
Faulkner’s first question hinted that she was looking to blame Trump Jr.’s legal counsel. She asked Spilbor for “the type of advice, legally, he should be getting and what he is getting.”
Spilbor said Trump Jr. should “stand down” and stop talking about the meeting because he’ll probably have to testify later. What he says now, she noted, could open him up to impeachment later.
At the “i” word, Faulkner jumped in to make sure her viewers understood Spilbor was talking about Junior’s testimony being impeached, i.e. discredited, not his father getting removed from office.
Spilbor went on to excuse Trump Jr. from relying on counsel because he probably didn’t see anything wrong with his meeting and, in validation, she opined that it was not illegal.
Faulkner yelled, “If the meeting was not illegal, why are we still talking about this?”
“Great question,” Spilbor agreed. She said at most there was “possibly a violation of the campaign finance laws” which she thought did not apply because “words are not a thing of value.” Since Trump Jr. “didn’t get any dirt,” she declared, “I think he got duped into the meeting.”
“Does this go away?” Faulkner asked hopefully.
“Yes,” Spilbor said, but probably not soon.
Faulkner played a clip of law professor Jonathan Turley claiming that “the most logical explanation” for the “real purpose of the meeting” was “a bait and switch.” We also saw Turley argue, “The fact that they had this meeting is not evidence of treason.”
Spilbor now delivered her half-baked conclusion: “I think the meeting is evidence nobody was in Putin’s pocket… If you’re in Putin’s pocket and you get a random email from a random dude that says I want you to meet with somebody who’s got dirt on Hillary but you’re in Putin’s pocket, you’re not taking that meeting.”
In fact, the letter came from no "random dude" but an acquaintance of Trump Jr.'s who promised information from his father's oligarch business pal who also happened to have extensive connections in the Russian government.
More importantly, the issue is not whether or not Trump Jr. is “in Putin’s pocket” but whether or not he tried to collude with a foreign government that was interfering in our election. As Fox’s own Charles Krauthammer said, Trump Jr.’s “attempted collusion is still collusion.” And the bigger picture is even worse. As David Corn wrote today, the real scandal is now how Team Trump knew about but helped conceal Putin’s attack on America.
Of course, Faulkner didn’t consider any of that. She yelled in approval, “Amen! I said this from the beginning: I said, if you really are aligned with someone so powerful, and you’re gonna recognize that because your dad has been powerful for many years in the business world, so you know power when you see it, why would you be on the short end of the stick trying to take a meeting?”
Watch Faulkner do her best to acquit the Trump family below, from the July 12, 2017 America’s News HQ.
Now what would be a good short term task to set him? Hey – what about this Republican Convention in a few weeks? If he changes the party platform to one guaranteeing the US would not intervene in Ukraine, giving us a free hand, that would do it!
On advice from Kushner and Manafort to direct the formal approach to Junior (thus implicating an embarrassingly ignorant family player) Putin dispatches trusted minion to put the demand to Junior in person. Easy peasy, most satisfying result.
Before he became a member of Congress he was on local Los Angeles radio and TV to represent the right’s point of view. He had a weekly TV show in the LA area during the Nixon years. Of course, during Watergate he defended Nixon. Finally, the week before Nixon resigned in August 1974, Doran at the end of his program said, I give up defending this guy. I just can’t do it anymore. As a then 17-year-old that’s when I knew that Nixon was done.
I wonder if we’ll ever hear the same from anyone at Fox say the same about Trump? Sean, Fox & Friends, definitely not. Shepard Smith, who I consider the only real non-bias reporter doesn’t count, but I’m talking about those who consider themselves journalist but with a right wing agenda. If they do, then will know Trump is done.
Background: Trump has just sewn up the delegates needed for the nomination. He’s just become a player. He’s not in Putin’s pocket yet but we do know Russians have been discussing the previous year exploiting Trump though Russian business contacts and agents.
Enter Natalia Veselnitskaya. First contact. Congratulations, Don Jr., you corrupt piece of a
s—t, you passed Putin’s test with flying colors!
