Now that Donald Trump Jr. has admitted to having had a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign because she promised him negative information on Hillary Clinton, it’s time to revisit all the times Trump and his advisers denied any such contacts. The Washington Post helpfully rounds up seven such denials, three of them from Trump Jr. himself.
One of Uday’s denials, of course, was on Saturday, when he was asked about his meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya and claimed that “We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” But in March, he said that during the campaign, “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did” but “certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.” And in July 2016, not long after his meeting with Veselnitskaya, asked about the Clinton campaign’s allegations that Russia was trying to help Trump, Junior said that “I can't think of bigger lies, but that exactly goes to show you what the DNC and what the Clinton camp will do. They will lie and do anything to win.”
Trump the Father denied collusion, too, in January, though only off camera and after making himself look guilty by ducking the question when it was asked during a press conference. But, after ducking that public question twice—“Can you stand here today, once and for all, and say that no one connected to you or your campaign had any contact with Russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign?”—two reporters said that later, off camera, Trump gave a firm denial.
Mike Pence went with “of course not” in response to two different versions of the collusion question. Kellyanne Conway said “absolutely not.” Sean Spicer referred reporters back to Donald Trump’s off-camera denial.
And they all said all of those things after Donald Jr. met with a Russian with Kremlin ties who said she had damaging information on Clinton. Lies, lies, and also lies.