Those who support President Trump are eager to try and downplay the revelations that his son, Donald Jr. and two other members of his 2016 campaign met with a Russian attorney and former Russian intelligence officer in June of last year, but no matter how hard they try to spin the meeting, the facts–and appearance of impropriety–continue to trip them up.
One of those supporters, Fred Fleitz, who is the former chief of staff for Ambassador John Bolton, was a guest on AM Joy Saturday morning, and he claimed the meeting cannot be taken seriously because it was organized by music promoter Rob Goldstone:
“What we have here is a playboy celebrity publicist who likes to hang out with Tina Turner and Miss America contestants, who lied to get a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. that he ordinarily would not have held. I’ve got to tell you that someone who is really involved in this intricate Russian intelligence operation would never have sent the email we discussed earlier, mentioning this operation exists.
“This guy was exaggerating, this guy was lying to get his client in front of Donald Trump Jr. That’s what happened here, all this other stuff is fantasy.”
But Reid wasn’t about to let Fleitz dismiss such a serious matter as meeting with members of an adversarial government, asking him:
“Let me ask you a question. It’s not fantasy because the meeting took place. In your view, if this person said to Donald Trump Jr., ‘I’ve got this information from the Russian government.’ What would be the motivation of Donald Trump Jr. to say ‘yes,’ and take the meeting?”
Again, Fleitz resorted to his previous tactic, attempting to downplay the meeting simply because Goldstone was part of it:
“Because Donald Trump Jr. knows this guy is a flake. Because he realizes he’s exaggerating to get the meeting but he’s a friend. he probably said, ‘Well, look, there’s no Russian effort to help my father, but look, I’ll meet with this guy because he’s a friend.’ There’s simply nothing there to connect this as a Russian intelligence operation.”
As Reid continued to ask questions that Fleitz repeatedly ducked, he finally whined:
“This is a rigged interview.”
No, the interview isn’t rigged, but the 2016 presidential election certainly appears to have been.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org