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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy this weekend's Trump Tower tweet matters
President Donald Trump on Sunday offered his starkest and most direct acknowledgment yet that his son, campaign chairman and son-in-law met with a Russian lawyer to get dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign.
"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics -- and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!" Trump tweeted on Sunday.
The tweet was not the only time the President has tweeted on the topic, but it does come at a time when the President is increasingly anxious about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and how it may impact him and his family.
Here are three things you need to know about the tweet:
1. A stark -- but not totally new -- acknowledgment
While this was the clearest and most direct acknowledgment by the President about the reason why his son, Donald Trump Jr., accepted the meeting with the Russian lawyer, Trump has made similar statements in the past.
Trump first acknowledged during a July 2017 news conference in Paris that his son was aiming to get dirt on his presidential opponent during the previous summer's meeting at Trump Tower.
"I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent," Trump said. "In the case of Don, he listened."
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-this-weekends-trump-tower-tweet-matters/ar-BBLzsDQ?li=BBnb7Kz
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)I mean, I saw it pointed out in some longer, in-depth articles about the meeting last year like in New Yorker or the like, but the media as a whole completely stays away from the obvious connection.
*IF*, in fact, 'Russian Adoptions' WERE discussed in this meeting, it is really no less incriminating, because the Russian/American Adoptions program was Shut Down by Putin ... in retaliation for the Magnitsky Act Sanctions.
Talk about 'Russian Adoptions' would in fact be talk about what quid pro quo the Trump Team was offering in exchange for 'the dirt'.
I think it's HIGHLY likely that a significant portion of this meeting WAS, in fact, 'about adoptions', as Dump & Jr. claimed.
But that fact is really not exculpatory in any way. It's a dime-store detective novel-level 'code word'.
The kind man that President Putin is, he would LOVE ... to see poor Russian Orphans again finding homes in your America once again!
So, if Russia were to assist your father in becoming POTUS, would he ... make sure that this happened, Donald? Our President would consider this a very personal favor, and it would be very favorable for US/Russia relations!"
~ Natalia Veselinitzskya