Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that the Washington Post’s report that President Donald Trump himself dictated a misleading statement to the New York Times on his son’s and other campaign officials’ meeting with a Russian lawyer bothered him, and that it further damaged the administration’s credibility.
“If the President was directly involved in creating that statement — it’s not illegal to lie to the press — does it bother you?” NBC’s Matt Lauer asked Graham in an interview on “Today.”
“Yeah, it bothers me a lot,” Graham said. “Because one, he put his son in jeopardy. Now we have to wonder about what Don Jr.’s team will tell you about what he actually did. If you didn’t know about the email, the statement may have fooled you. If you know about the email with Don Jr., then it’s a misleading statement.”
Lauer prodded: “But it sounds like the President himself was trying to cover up the truth about that meeting.”
“If that’s true, then that was a bad decision by the President which will make us ask more questions,” Graham said. “When you get caught in a lie about one thing, it makes it hard to just say let the other stuff go.”
The Washington Post reported Monday that Trump himself dictated his son’s statement to the Times acknowledging a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign, which misleadingly claimed the meeting focused on adoption policy. In fact, as emails published by the Times (and Trump Jr.) later showed, the meeting was arranged based on the lawyer’s promise of damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s attorney, Jay Sekulow, later said the President was not involved in drafting the initial statement, a claim which the Post’s reporting contradicts.
Watch below via NBC:
WATCH: “It bothers me a lot because, one, he put his son in jeopardy.” @LindseyGrahamSC on report of Trump dictating son’s statement pic.twitter.com/ir7xbisJAo
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 1, 2017
