July 13, 2017

Trump Defends His Son’s Meeting with Russian Offering Clinton Dirt as “Very Standard”

“Most people would have taken that meeting.”

Trump chats with Macron in Hamburg at the G20 meeting earlier this month.Emmanuele Contin/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his son’s decision to arrange a meeting with a Russian lawyer who purportedly had incriminating information on Hillary Clinton as “very standard,” asserting “most people” in his son’s position would have acted the same way. 

“My son is a wonderful young man,” Trump said at a press conference in Paris, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. “He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer—not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer.”

“I do think that from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting,” he continued. “It’s called opposition research, opposition on your opponent.”

“Politics is not the nicest business in the world,” he added.

Trump also appeared to blame former US Attorney General Loretta Lynch for setting the stage for his son’s email scandal, alleging she worked to approve a visa for the Kremlin-connected lawyer at the center of the controversy.

The remarks come on the heels of the New York Times‘ bombshell report on emails revealing the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., had leapt at the chance to meet a Kremlin-linked lawyer who wanted to offer damaging information on Hillary Clinton. The emails published on Monday appear to be the first piece of hard evidence showing Trump associates were willing to work with the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is in Paris for Friday’s Bastille Day celebrations.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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