Fox News host Chris Wallace accused Jay Sekulow, a member of President Donald Trump's legal team, of "ducking" questions about whether Donald Trump Jr. tried to collude with Russians.
July 16, 2017

Fox News host Chris Wallace accused Jay Sekulow, a member of President Donald Trump's legal team, of "ducking" questions about whether Donald Trump Jr. tried to collude with Russians.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace pointed out that Trump, his son and the vice president had all denied any contact with Russians in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign before the news broke that Donald Trump Jr. and other top campaign officials had sought opposition research on Hillary Clinton from a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin.

Instead of answering the question, Sekulow attacked former FBI Director James Comey for writing a book.

"This doesn't have anything to do with my question," Wallace interrupted, "which is whether or not there were contacts [with Russians]."

Sekulow once again spun the question back to Comey, but Wallace stopped him.

"I'm not asking you about any of that," the Fox host pressed. "The question I'm asking -- the president, his son, the vice president repeatedly denied any contacts with the Russians. Given what we've learned this week about the contact between a number of top campaign officials including the president's son, are all those denials just fake news and a hoax or are those suspect?"

"You said the Russians," Sekulow complained. "This was a lawyer who was Russian... This idea that it may have involved opposition research, the fact is the Ukrainians at the time were working with the DNC and the Clinton campaign."

"The point is it does show intent, willingness," Wallace replied. "Perhaps not actual collusion... doesn't it show intent and willingness on the part of Don Jr. and Jared [Kushner] and Paul Manafort to collude with the Russians?"

"You know that goes on in campaigns all the time," Sekulow scoffed. "Opposition research is a big part of campaigning."

"It doesn't go on with the Russians all the time," Wallace observed.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon