As you might have guessed, Trump didn’t throw his son under the bus today when taking a question on the new Russia controversy.
Here’s how Trump answered it:
.@POTUS on @DonaldJTrumpJr meeting with Russian lawyer: "Most people would've taken that meeting." https://t.co/587Z45et6W pic.twitter.com/QfHKhBcEke
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 13, 2017
In short Trump said that many people would have taken that meeting with the Russian lawyer, as evidenced by people telling him they would have.
He made sure to point out that the Russian lawyer was not a Russian government lawyer and that nothing came from the short meeting, which turned out to be about adoption.
He also pointed out that the Russian lawyer, who wasn’t supposed to be here, was admitted into the country via Attorney General Lynch.
And lastly but most bigly, his son is a wonderful young man, etc etc.
At the end of the day I don’t think much substantive will come of this. After all, the reporting suggests that it was little more than a bait and switch and we don’t have any evidence that anything more sinister happened here.
But as predicted, the media and Democrats are making as much political hay out of this as possible with their breathless coverage and will continue to do so, in the short term at least, until Trump Jr’s hearing is over next week.
How much this damages Trump in the long term remains to be seen.