Trump Mocked and Schooled After Tweeting ‘Most Politicians Would Have Gone to a Meeting Like the One Don Jr Attended’

The President Kicks off ‘Made in America Week’ With a Lie  

President Donald Trump just defended his son’s attending a meeting with several Russian operatives that’s caused headlines now for over a week. And since the President’s defense is indefensible, many on social media were quick to mock – and school – him for it.

“Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!” President Trump tweeted just after 10 AM Monday morning, which only served to keep the now diminishing story alive, as he starts  what the White House is calling “Made in America Week.”

In reality, of course, Trump Jr. is not a politician, even though the Trump campaign is paying his legal bills, but as many actual politicians and political operatives have said, not only would they not have taken the meeting, they would have called the FBI. That’s what an Al Gore advisor did during the presidential race of 2000, when he received a video and internal documents of the Bush campaign, unsolicited, in the mail.

And as President Trump said himself just a year ago, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Bottom line: as The Atlantic suggested last week, Trump Jr. could be in trouble.

Rick Hasen, a University of California, Irvine, law professor who specializes in election law, wrote that the Goldstone email exchange was “pretty close to the smoking gun people were looking for.” The president’s son “appears to have knowledge of the foreign source and is asking to see it,” he added, noting that “such information can be considered a ‘thing of value’ for purposes of the campaign finance law.” 

And that’s what could make it illegal, as Hasen said on his own blog last week: “It is illegal for a person to solicit a contribution to a campaign from a foreign individual or entity.

What kind of a world do we live in when the President of the United States defends at the very least, flouting the law, and at the very worst, breaking it?

Here’s what some on Twitter had to say:

The Atlantic’s Senior Editor, Adam Serwer:

Yahoo News’ Garance Franke-Ruta:

Pollster Matt McDermott:

CNN’s Jake Tapper:

CNN’s Keith Boykin‏:

More:

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Image of Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr by Disney | ABC Television Group via Flickr and a CC license