July 27, 2018

After the news broke that Michael Cohen says Trump knew all about the 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower, Fox's Laura Ingraham and her guests twisted themselves into pretzels trying to defend Trump from his multitude of lies dealing with that meeting.

I was curious to see how Fox News would handle the revelation that Trump and his son repeatedly lied to the press and the American people to cover up a meeting with Russians who said they had dirt on HRC to give them. But Don Jr. may have lied about this knowledge under oath during a closed-door session with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ingraham opened by claiming the real important news was that Cohen didn't have a recording of this on tape.

Laura said, "Of course in all their breathless coverage, they seem to be ignoring the important nugget. 'To be clear, these sources said Cohen does not have evidence such as audio recordings to corroborate his claims. He is willing to attest to his account.'"

When the president repeatedly lies to the American people about knowledge of a meeting with his closest advisors and Russian agents to get information about his rival during the 2016 election in Trump Tower, that's not what matters to the Fox News host. It's the tape.

When has it been required that audio recordings were necessary to prove dirty dealings took place? Witness testimony incarcerates many a criminal; a tape recording is just the gravy on top.

Fox News Andrew McCarthy went on at length about Mueller, the southern district of New York and Cohen, but upset Laura Ingraham when he said, "Look, the Trump Tower meeting is bad. It's not collusion in the sense that they opened the investigation over it."

"No one is going to look good at this,"he said as Laura tried to stop him from talking.

Ingraham jumped in to blame, guess who?

Ingraham said, "Andy, hold on. Andy. Andy. As we talk about this, I think we forget Hillary Clinton paid for dirt that was assembled by the Russians in the form of the Steele dossier. She actually went further than meeting with someone. Her people paid for it. They got dirt and it ended up making it all the way through the US government. Big deal."

Hiring a opposition research company is not a crime and happens on every campaign imaginable, but HRC is the Republican fall-guy on everything.

McCarthy then made a claim that is a lie.

McCarthy said, "Look, I don't think it's bad if campaigns are turning to foreign governments for dirt. It's not collusion. It's not something that's impeachable. It's icky, but that's what this is."

As Bob Bower, former WH Counsel to President Obama writes , "The law prohibits foreign nationals from providing “anything of value … in connection with” an election.

Strassel joined in and said it's a case of he said, he said between Cohen and Trump.

She continued, "What Andy said is true, it kinda looks icky but the bigger point is there a crime?"

She claimed it wasn't a crime for Junior to meet with a 'singular" Russian person, but that's not true either.

She spent her time defending Trump from any criminal action unless Donald was under oath when he denied all knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting.

Without really knowing the laws, she said, "It's another potentially bad headline if it's true, but I'm not necessarily sure it's any legal jeopardy."

Ingraham then takes word for what Don Jr., said about the meeting as sacrosanct, claiming they only discussed the Magnitsky act.

Ingraham said, "Jared was bored. He got up and walked out. Manafort walked out, and so it was a big nothing."

Hey, Laura, I have a bridge to sell you.

She continued, "If this is where they are, on this level, and for going to get to the Twitter issue in a moment. What does it tell you about the state of the Mueller investigation?"

It tells you nothing about the current state of the Mueller investigation because it's Trump's personal lawyer and admitted fixer who just made these revelations.

Ingraham and her guests twisted the facts as best they could trying to knock down Michael Cohen's new allegations.

But if Cohen is correct, and why wouldn't he be? Trump repeatedly lied about his knowledge of the secret meetings in his Tower with Russian agents and his campaign trying to circumvent the 2016 presidential election.

And if that lying is coordinated (duh) it's obstruction of justice.

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