Fox News' Shepard Smith almost had a meltdown on air after John Roberts reported that Trump Jr's attorney told him the reason for the drip-drip nature of information on the Russian meeting was because it was so insignificant. Apparently Kushner, Manafort and Junior forgot all about the "nothingburger" meeting, which is why they failed to report it. Oddly, Junior didn't seem to have much problem locating the emails about it, though.
After playing video of Trump defending his son in Paris, Fox News' White House correspondent John Roberts knew what he was about to say was so ridiculous - he said, "Here's an example of I report, you decide."
Roberts continued, "We are told by Donald Trump Jr's attorney this afternoon that the reason why the story keeps changing here is because for the principals who were involved, DTJ, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, this meeting was so unremarkable, so insignificant in its content that the three of them had forgotten about most of it by the time it was over."
Shep was stunned. "Wait."
Incredulously, he continued, "Donald Trump Jr. was given information that there was Russian information from a Russian lawyer that was going to be imparted to him in a meeting. He thought it significant enough to bring in Donald Trump's son-in-law and the man in charge of just about everything and the then campaign manager in the meeting and it was so nothing that he forgot about it? There was a Russian interpreter in the room."
Roberts sheepishly grinned, "As I said, Shep, I report, you decide. that's what I'm being told."
With each passing hour, the Donald Trump Jr. email scandal becomes deeper, darker and more absurd with every tick of the clock.
CNN is now reporting there were up to eight people in the meeting:
Trump Jr., Kushner, Manafort, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin and publicist Rob Goldstone, who helped set up the meeting. A source familiar with the circumstances told CNN there were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting. The source did not provide the names.
What a surprise. Trump Jr. never mentioned any of this to Sean Hannity.
UPDATE:
Here's another moment with Shep and Chris Wallace worth watching:
