“Morning Joe” took a break from bashing President Trump on Tuesday to shift attention over to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who became steeped in bad press of his own over the weekend and Monday involving the Russians.
In the wake of outcry over a meeting Trump Jr. had last year with a Kremlin-linked lawyer two weeks after his father clinched the Republican nomination, the New York Times reported Monday night that he received an email informing him he would receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy.
Earlier on Monday, Trump Jr. took to Twitter to retweet a few of his father’s messages and attack the media for coverage of the meeting last June, which the Times initially disclosed on Saturday.
“How stupid of Don, Jr.,” said host Joe Scarborough while discussing the latest developments, which dominated the first hour of MSNBC’s morning show.
“I mean I guess it runs in the family, to go on Twitter when he is clearly in legal jeopardy. This time yesterday morning everyone knew he was clearly in legal jeopardy. He goes up on Twitter again yesterday only to be undercut by the New York Times last night because inside his own White House, inside his own administration are leaking on him.”
Trump Jr. said that he met with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, at the request of an acquaintance from the Miss Universe pageant.
When they met, he said the lawyer “stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”
On Monday’s “Morning Joe,” a legal expert went so far as to suggest Trump, Jr. could go to jail for participating the meeting.
“It’s a crime to solicit or accept anything from a foreign national in a campaign,” MSNBC justice and security analyst Matthew Miller said. “It doesn’t have to be money… it can be, potentially, accepting information. So he’s potentially confessing in his statement to committing a crime.”
Watch Tuesday’s “Morning Joe” segment here.