It’s kind of poetic: Russian help and Trump’s tweets are largely what propelled him to the White House, and those two things may also bring about his downfall.
On news that Trump’s son, Donald Jr., scheduled a meeting during the campaign with a Russian lawyer promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, the microscope on Trump’s shady campaign only intensified. He’s tried everything to get it to stop, including firing the FBI director investigating him, but it’s all starting to come out.
Making matters worse for the White House, Donald Jr. keeps digging himself a deeper hole. First, he tried to cover up the meeting. Then when he got caught, he lied about the contents of the meeting. Then when he got caught again, he admitted, with no apparent awareness, that, yes, he had tried to collude with the Russians, but since he failed it wasn’t wrong. (Note: hiring a hitman to kill your wife is a crime whether the hitman goes through with it or not.)
On Monday, following a weekend of collusion evidence against him, Donald Jr. again brought out his gold-plated shovel and started digging.
Obviously I’m the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent… went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017
For what it’s worth, staffers from other campaigns, both Republican and Democratic, have gone on record to say that there is a flat policy in election teams of handing over any information about an opponent seemingly obtained illegally or from a foreign adversary to law enforcement. Famously, Al Gore immediately summoned authorities when a shady person obtained Bush’s debate prep notes.
When Gore campaign was sent Bush debate brief book, they called FBI. If foreign interests offer you info on former SOS, you call the FBI.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) July 10, 2017
Most politicians hold themselves to that higher standard – Trump’s team didn’t.
It gets worse.
Liberal pundit and longtime thorn in Trump’s side, Keith Olbermann, went ahead and checked out what Trump was up to the day his son was meeting with the Russians. It turns out, it was the very first day he decided to mention Hillary’s emails.
Guess what @realDonaldTrump did the same day Jr, Manafort, Kushner met that Russian? He sent his 1ST tweet about Hillary’s “33,000 emails” pic.twitter.com/BAP9aEDcLE
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 10, 2017
And three days later, Wikileaks dumped the Hillary campaign’s emails, boosting Trump and ultimately helping him win the election.
Coincidence?
Featured image via Olivier Douliery – Pool/Getty Images
