That drip, drip, drip of Trump advisers admitting that they, whoops, forgot about that meeting they had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak? Well, here’s the biggest drip of all.
A few minutes before he made those remarks, Mr. Trump met at a VIP reception with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak. Mr. Trump warmly greeted Mr. Kislyak and three other foreign ambassadors who came to the reception.
That meeting took place at the end of April, just over a month before Russian hackers lifted emails from the servers at the DNC and handed them to WikiLeaks. It was the day of Trump’s vaunted foreign policy speech, one of those moments that was supposed to be a “pivot” but which turned out to be yet another opportunity for Trump to press a hard line. However, there was a soft spot in his speech.
Some say the Russians won’t be reasonable. I intend to find out. If we can’t make a deal under my administration, a deal that’s great — not good, great — for America, but also good for Russia, then we will quickly walk from the table. It’s as simple as that. We’re going to find out.
Kislyak attended the speech. Both he and Vladimir Putin were reportedly happy with Trump’s “good for Russia” rhetoric. At the moment, it’s not clear if Trump’s direct meeting with the Russian ambassador went beyond warm words and one of Trump’s arm-wrenching handshakes, but it is clear this is another little memory slip by team Trump.
And speaking of that … Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III also appears to have been at that reception. It may be time to make another revision to his statement.