Trump's defense of his son's meetings marks a revolting new low
WASHINGTON -- Every week -- nearly every day -- brings fresh, stomach-churning evidence of President Trump's unfitness for office. The latest may be the most revolting.
Confronted with incontrovertible proof that his son leapt at the prospect of meeting with a "Russian government attorney" offering to dish dirt on Hillary Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support" for his candidacy, the president took the position that this was political business as usual.
His first public reaction, in an interview with Reuters, was that "many people would have held that meeting." The next day, Trump ratcheted up that astonishing assertion, from "many" to "most," asserting, "I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. Politics isn't the nicest business in the world, but it's very standard."
No. It. Isn't.
Donald Trump Jr. at least had the decency to admit, in his interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, that "in retrospect, I would've done things differently." Not his father. I know being Trump means never having to say you're sorry. I understand the fierce parental instinct to defend your erring child, even if that child is a 39-year-old father of five.
But this meeting was unacceptable. It was not even in the exurbs of appropriate. Hard to believe this really requires spelling out, but apparently it does, so here goes: A candidate for president of the United States and his campaign have no business, none, trucking with an emissary of a foreign government peddling incriminating information about their opponent.
That this meeting was explicitly described as an element of a Russian plot to influence the U.S. election is icing on an already repulsive cake. That the target of this feeler -- the candidate's son -- embraced such meddling rather than recoiling from it, only adds to the sordidness of the episode.
And that the intended beneficiary, now the sitting president of the United States, is unable and unwilling to accept that fact should be chilling to every patriotic American. Perhaps he is incapable of ever acknowledging wrongdoing. That only adds to the chill.
As does Trump's staggering refusal to recognize the reality of Russian attempts to interfere in the election. What was Trump doing, at this late stage, asking Russian President Vladimir Putin if he meddled?
"I said, 'Did you do it?' And he said, 'No, I did not. Absolutely not,' Trump told Reuters. "I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not."
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