Even Trump’s Staunchest TV Allies Struggle With His Comments On Foreign Dirt

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 12: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a meeting with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda, in the Oval Office the White House on June 12,... WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 12: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a meeting with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda, in the Oval Office the White House on June 12, 2019 in Washington, DC. The two leaders are scheduled to attends meetings at the White House before speaking at a Rose Garden news conference. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Even President Donald Trump’s most dependable yes men are struggling to spin his comments on accepting foreign “oppo research” and not telling the FBI.

The comments came from clips of an interview Trump did on ABC that aired in part Wednesday night.

Brian Kilmeade, a “Fox and Friends” host, called on Trump to clean up the comments.

“You don’t want a foreign government or foreign entity giving you information because they will want something back,” he said Thursday morning. “If anybody knows that it is the President. There is no free lunch. If someone wants information they want influence. I think the President’s got to to clarify that…He opened himself wide up to attacks.”

Laura Ingraham, host of Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle,” directed her ire at Trump’s staff.

“Setting aside the question of why you would have George Stephanopoulos standing over the President in the Oval Office —I don’t know who approved that — what about this notion of accepting foreign intel about an opponent?” she asked Wednesday night. “Is that a risk for President Trump, getting pulled back into Mueller? Again, why he was put in that situation is beyond me.”

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum tried to squeeze a different meaning out of Trump’s words.

“The President wasn’t answering questions about soliciting information, he was saying, if someone came to you and said ‘Hey, I have some dirt’ –and he was talking more colloquially, again, I think the President’s words, often, are imprecise and not necessarily — you know, that’s why I think he didn’t want to be interviewed with Bob Mueller, is that he can sort of ramble and talk about things more loosely,” Santorum said on CNN. “And I think he was talking more of a general political context, that we get opposition research all the time.”

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. How much more of a confession do we need to have that all that collusion stuff was true.

    And now, since they were cleared that that shit wasn’t enough to get charges brought, they’re just doing it in the open.

  2. “I can’t be blackmailed because I do all my crimes out in the open” is a weird look. I admit it’s sort of ironic that the most heinous betrayal Trump has committed is to tell the truth.

  3. How long until Trump denies he ever said it and calls the tapes FakeNews? I give until end of day at the latest.

  4. “You don’t want a foreign government or foreign entity giving you information because they will want something back,” he said Thursday morning.

    “At least, don’t say it out loud, fer chris’sake,” he added.

  5. Wow… A Fox and Friends host actually said something intelligent! That’s gotta be a first.

    So much for the Donald who can’t be bought…

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

285 more replies

Participants

Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for brooklyndweller Avatar for UnfadingGreen Avatar for clemmers Avatar for cervantes Avatar for george_spiggott Avatar for becca656 Avatar for inversion Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for lastroth Avatar for leftcoaster Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for darrtown Avatar for tena Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for tiowally Avatar for redemptionsong Avatar for erik_t Avatar for demosthenes59 Avatar for godwit Avatar for philmore Avatar for haddockbranzini Avatar for emiliano4

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: