If you thought that Fox News could not find a way to blame Democrats for Donald Trump Jr.’s very damning 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer who reportedly promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, think again.
This afternoon, The New York Times broke news that cast serious doubt on Trump Jr.’s claim that his previously undisclosed meeting with Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, was focused on Russian adoptions.
The Times first broke the news of Trump Jr.’s June, 2016 meeting with Veselnitskaya Saturday. In that story, the Times quoted a statement from Trump Jr. (emphases added):
In his statement, Donald Trump Jr. said: “It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared [Kushner] and Paul [Manafort] to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.”
But today, the Times reported that Trump Jr. “was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with” Veselnitskaya.
Even more incriminating, Trump Jr. all but admitted the damaging-to-Clinton information was the reason he went to the meeting. In a statement, Trump Jr. said that Veselnitskaya stated she had information that “individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton.” But, according to Trump Jr, “it quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information” and “that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting.”
As The Washington Post pointed out, this was confirmation that Trump Jr. went to the meeting “expecting to receive information from the Russian lawyer that could hurt Clinton.”
But to Fox News’ White House correspondent Kevin Corke, the “real question” was whether this was all a Democratic plot.
Here’s how supposedly objective Corke reported on the developments:
CORKE: Very interesting story we’ve been following, you may have read about this in the New York Times.
We’re getting more reaction tonight by Donald Trump Jr. to a story in the Times that suggested that he and others from the campaign met with a Russian lawyer last summer, hoping to score some intel about the Hillary Clinton campaign.
He’s actually issued a statement that reads, in part, that the meeting lasted 20 to 30 minutes. The woman who was the attorney in the meeting, she claimed to know of individuals connected to Russia who are funding the DNC. She made statements that were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. He also goes on to add that the president neither attended nor knew anything about that meeting.
Corke noted Donald Trump Jr. failed to disclose that meeting in his federal paperwork but that it had been disclosed by Kushner and Manafort.
Then came the conspiracy theory about the Democrats:
CORKE: Real question remains, who was this person that asked for this meeting and did a Democratic operative put her up to it?
Corke didn’t offer any facts to support his suggestion but it’s preposterous on the face of it. It assumes that either the Democrats knew that Trump would win the election back in June, 2016, so they colluded with Russia to set up Trump Jr. but waited until now to spill the beans or that the Democrats actually tried to help Trump win.
But hey, as The Daily Beast revealed, Corke seems to have a thing for conspiracy theories. In October, for example, Corke “retweeted a proudly alt-right user promoting a National Enquirer story claiming ‘Hillary Fixer Breaks Ranks: I Arranged Sex Trysts For Her — With Men & WOMEN.’” Corke provided no explanation for promoting this “news.”
Watch Fox News’ White House correspondent promote his latest conspiracy theory below, from the July 9, 2017 America’s News HQ.
In the era of “alternative facts”, it makes perfect sense.
.
“Russians are everywhere. In the Oval Office. Undisclosed meetings with the immediate family and advisers of the President. The President is currying favor with them. What should we do, oh what should we do”????
Faux: :“Blame the Democrats”.
The msm should be skewing Trump Jr. If this was a story on Chelsea it would be #Benghazi! part deux on Fox.
http://www.newshounds.us/2009/03/29/hannity_and_discredited_guest_hysterically_hype_terrorism_threat_from_mexico.php
Unfazed by all the contradictions in his account, he then went on to try to say this idea would somehow backfire on the Dems because Circa News says so. Which would be spit-take funny if viewers knew anything about Circa News and its primary reporter Sara Carter.
Sara Carter is infamous for her false and misleading reporting on the matter of former Border Patrol agents Ramos & Compean, who were properly convicted and sentenced for their attempted murder of a fleeing suspect, who Ramos shot in the rear end. (And there was the matter of the guys trying to cover up the shooting…) Carter made a name for herself in Right Wing media with that canard, even after it was thoroughly debunked, because the Hard Right loved the narrative she was telling, and its true purpose. (She was painting the felons as heroes of the Border, and was trying to defend a practice that would essentially turn the Border into a far more dangerous badland than it already is.) These days, Carter peddles whatever conspiracy theories the Hard Right wants to hear for Circa, which is why Sean Hannity keeps putting her on his show. While the rest of the world is watching the mess of the Pence White House and its various entanglements with Russia, Carter keeps pushing any thread she can find that might be about Hillary Clinton or Loretta Lynch.
So to be clear, Circa News is not a legitimate news source. It is a partisan attack group that is trying to establish an alternative narrative, something they’re really going to need after the Pence White House is sent packing.
Karma is coming.
