| | | | "A willingness to collude" | | Stunned. Television anchors and guests sounded stunned as they read aloud the emails between Donald Trump Jr. and an associate who wanted to set up a meeting for him with a "Russian government attorney" to help Trump's campaign.
CNN's Kate Bolduan was on the air when the emails came out. "Wow," she said. Jake Tapper later in the hour: "Staggering." Jim Sciutto a little while later: "Truly a momentous development." | | "On its face," Tapper said, "this email chain is proof of a willingness expressed by Donald Trump Jr. to collude with Russia."
He brought up the previous denials of improper contacts and the White House's complete "indignance" about Russia-related accusations. "Some of them HAD to have known this meeting took place," he said. "Some of them had to have known that these emails existed."
A Republican voice on Bolduan's panel, Ken Cuccinelli, acknowledged that the email exchange "legitimately fuels concerns." An hour later, speaking with Dana Bash, former Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said "my mind is blown." He asserted that "it's impossible to believe the president himself did not know about this."
And the coverage continues now... Anderson Cooper is anchoring 2 til 4pm ET on CNN... | | Today's W.H. briefing will be heard, but not seen | | | At the time I'm sending out this email, the W.H. is supposed to be holding an off-camera briefing. CNN will have almost-live coverage as soon as the briefing wraps up, since the audio is embargoed til the end... | | | Per CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Jeff Zeleny: President Trump has been advised against tweeting about this subject... But it's anyone's guess whether he will follow that advice... For now, no tweets and no public events from POTUS... | | Flashback: This is what he said two months ago | | | @realDonaldTrump on May 12: "Again, the story that there was collusion between the Russians & Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election." | | Don Jr. will be on "Hannity" Tuesday night | | Presumably the interview will be pre-taped. It's unknown if Fox News will release any excerpts ahead of time.
Media Twitter has been dripping with sarcasm about the scheduled interview. NYT TV critic James Poniewozik imagined one of the softball questions: "Donald, the FAKE NEWS accepts leaks all the time. Why is it, the second the Russians offer to leak to you, they act like it's a crime?"
-- My take: The real journalists at Fox must be disappointed that Don Jr. is being interviewed by a pro-Trump talk show host rather than a journalist. Hannity's response to me: "Lol. At least Fox has real journalists." | | Here's how it all went down | | Don Jr. said he released damaging emails to be "totally transparent." The real story is more complicated -- and, it seems, more self-serving.
The NYT had already reviewed copies of the emails and asked him to comment when he decided to tweet out pictures of the email exchange. Trump Jr.'s tweets came out, seemingly out of nowhere, at 11am ET. By then, the NYT already had a full story ready to go, so it hit publish a few minutes later. A news alert sent by the paper came out at 11:10am.
A newsroom source told me "we were preparing to publish" when Don Jr. tweeted. "Don Jr. asked for more time when we contacted him" for comment, "and then pre-empted us." Here's my recap of what happened...
-- HuffPost's Michael Calderone adds this detail: NYT asked "for a response to the emails by 11 am -- exactly when he tweeted them out..." | | | PR pro Stu Loeser emails: "This is a move that might be good for a few hours today, but will be bad for Donald Trump Jr. for years in the future. Speaking as someone who often interfaces between NYT (and other) reporters and legal teams, Donald J. Trump's move today seems particularly boneheaded. This is far from the last story the Times is going to write about him, but now he's given them permission -- actually, clear instructions -- to call him as late as possible in the process. I suspect we'll start to see a lot of stories saying that Mr. Trump and his lawyers did not reply to a request for comment, which likely came only minutes before posting." | | Unanswered Q: Who provided these emails to the NYT? | | A lede for the history books? | | | Here's the top of the story by Jo Becker, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo: "The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father's former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton. The documents 'would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,' read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, 'This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.'" | | Some (deserved!) NYT back-patting | | | These are "significant documents that are now in the public domain..." and "it's clear they wouldn't have been released without NYTimes," one of the paper's top reporters, Glenn Thrush, tweeted... | | Ice cube or tip of the iceberg? | | | When Cuccinelli and I were both on with Bolduan, he reprised the smoke/fire metaphor we've all heard before, so I went from fire to ice, asking this: Is the Russian lawyer meeting an ice cube, something we've seen fully... or is it the tip of an iceberg, still mostly submerged? | | What more does the NYT have? | | | You might remember that the NYT's Adam Goldman tweeted late Monday night, "I am still reporting." That was after the NYT revealed the existence of the email exchange, but before publishing the key quotes. Now the quotes are out... and Goldman just tweeted again... "Update 2: I am still reporting." | | Oliver Darcy emails: While CNN and MSNBC went into breaking news mode right away, Fox did not report on the new emails for over half an hour. The "Happening Now" hosts treated it like a regular run-of-the-mill segment and soon switched gears to other news stories...
Moving forward, if history is any indicator, we can expect Fox News to do these two things as the story develops: 1.) Push pro-Trump talking points. Expect stories/segments framed around things like statements from the White House and Donald Trump Jr. 2.) Attack the media for its coverage. In fact, a source at Fox News told me that a focus on the "media frenzy" is already planned for this evening's programs... | | How will pro-Trump media voices react? Here's a preview | | Tom Kludt emails: How will conservatives -- and, in particular, the most ardently pro-Trump factions on the right -- respond to the Times' bombshell? While I have no doubt that we'll be treated to another round of "whataboutisms?" directed at Hillary Clinton, I suspect we'll hear echoes of what new Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer said this afternoon on "Outnumbered." He conceded that Trump Jr's meeting was evidence of "bad judgment," but not a crime. It does not, Fleischer said, confirm that there was "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
"People just need to keep the temperature down," Fleischer admonished.
-- Over at Breitbart, Joel Pollak closed his report with the same point: "The email does not refer to any cooperation, coordination or collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government," he wrote... | | | -- MSNBC's Joy Reid tweets: "Every Republican who went on the record yesterday using the 'nothingburger' talking point will probably be hard to book today." | | Don't believe your lying eyes... | | Oliver Darcy emails: The pro-Trump media universe appeared to consolidate around an odd talking point in the immediate aftermath to the news: the emails proved the NYT's stories over the past few days to be false. (The opposite is true.) Far-right writer Mike Cernovich tweeted the emails and said, "As suspected the lying NY Times fabricated another fake story!" Jack Posobiec, another far-right writer, tweeted that the emails "contradict" the Times' story and have "blown [it] out of the water." Pro-Trump personality Bill Mitchell weighed in, "And just like that, another blockbuster from the NYTimes (Don Jr Story) ends up being pure bullsh*t." 🤔
-- A reminder from Oliver: Remember, Trump's media allies have recently been peppering audiences with the "collusion is not a crime" talking point... | | | Brian Lowry emails: I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh, and he's completely dismissing the Trump Jr. emails. Rush wondered aloud about whether he's covering it too much -- he hates "playing defense" -- but said he feels compelled to because of the conservatives who are getting "wobbly" over it... | | | NBC political reporter Benjy Sarlin tweets: "You would have been likely called a conspiracy crank if you suggested this kind of exchange happened as recently as one month ago." | | Back to attacking the messenger... | | "Fake News Industrial Complex" | | Earlier in the morning, before the NYT called him for comment, Don Jr. tweeted: "Media & Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story. If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation!"
Trump aide Seb Gorka, who sparred with CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day" Tuesday morning, responded to a friend who lambasted the "Fake News Industrial Complex" and said he agrees with the disparaging term. | | | (Gorka has blocked me on Twitter, so thank you to CNN's David Wright for sending the screen grab) | | Why has Trump been bashing the press? "Because of stories like this." | | | A crucial point made by Jake Tapper at the end of the 11am hour: Many strategists believe that "one of the reasons why" the Trump White House "has been so aggressive in trying to undermine the fourth estate, whether it's The New York Times or The Washington Post or CNN, is because of stories like this. Because 35, 40% of the country doesn't want to hear this information..." | | This hearing just got EVEN more interesting... | | | RCP's Rebecca Berg tweets a reminder: "Trump's FBI director nominee, Christopher Wray, will have his Senate hearing tomorrow. What timing!" | | | We'll be back later today with our regular nightly edition of the newsletter... | | -- From TIME to LIFE? "Senior executives at Time Inc. recently met to discuss a potential rebranding of the company that could include changing the publisher's corporate name, according to several people familiar with the situation," the WSJ reports... (WSJ)
-- "We were mistaken:" On Tuesday's show, "Fox & Friends" acknowledged Monday's false news report about James Comey... (Mediaite)
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest: "The Intercept failed to shield its confidential source. Now it's making amends..." (WashPost)
-- Disney is struggling to find stars for its live-action remake of "Aladdin..." (THR) | | That time the White House wanted the Correspondents' Association to criticize a correspondent... | | Lots of news from Monday night's meeting of White House Correspondents Association members. WashPost's Erik Wemple says the headline is "Trump White House attempted to draft WHCA prez to backstab peers."
Politico's Hadas Gold explains: "The White House asked the White House Correspondents' Association to single out a reporter and criticize an article, WHCA President Jeff Mason said on Monday evening..." He declined to "elaborate further on when the ask was made or about what article..." | | This rule change could ice out Breitbart | | | At the aforementioned meeting, there was also discussion about a proposed change to the WHCA bylaws that "could keep Breitbart News reporters out of the group's decision-making process." It has to do with the Congressional Standing Committee. Tom Kludt has the full story here... | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Email us... we're at reliablesources@cnn.com... we appreciate every email. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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