Kellyanne Conway got grilled on Monday’s “Good Morning America” by George Stephanopoulos, who repeatedly pressed the White House counselor about the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. “No information was received that was meaningful or helpful,” she insisted.
The meeting — which was held in June of last year at Trump Tower, two weeks after Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination — was first reported by The Times on Saturday and is the first confirmed private meeting between Trump’s inner circle and the Russians.
Trump Jr. said that he met with the 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.”
Conway backed Trump Jr.’s version of events and said that allegations linking the Trump campaign to collusion with the Russian government were examples of “wishful thinking” on the part of the president’s opponents.
“Everyone is trying to convert wishful thinking into hard evidence,” Conway said. “They haven’t been able to do that.”
Veselnitskaya denied that the presidential campaign was discussed during the meeting and said she “never acted on behalf of the Russian government.”
During the conversation with Stephanopoulos, Conway also denied allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government in an effort to win the presidency, saying “there’s no evidence of collusion” between the two parties.
Check out the video above.