When you've lost Lucianne's son, Jonah Goldberg...

"The benefit of the doubt is gone." -- Jonah Goldberg


"Who in that room do you think is above lying about what transpired there? Paul Manafort? Forget his deep Russian connections. The guy was a lobbyist for Mobutu Seske Seko. When he worked for the Pakistani intelligence service, he pretended to be a CNN reporter for a propaganda documentary he was making for them.

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Jared? The guy who initially "forgot" that meeting happened at all? Don Jr.? We already know he's capable of lying about the meeting because he's already lied about the meeting.''Oh maybe you're taking the word of the sketchy Russian lawyer. That's a great idea. It's also kind of hilarious. Many of the people pushing back on this story are doing so by questioning Natalia Veselnitskaya's credibility.But we should take her word that nothing happened? Cults of personality are a helluva drug.

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"...the Associated Press report[s] that the sketchy former Soviet counter-intelligence guy, Rinat Akhmetshin, who was in the room claims that Veselnitskaya did indeed hand over a file of incriminating infor. I guess this is just a smudge on the window of Junior's transarency.]

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It doesn't frick'n mater if -- note the "if" -- nothing came of the meeting. Junior can't claim he, Manafort, and Kushner never sought to collude with the Russian government when he admits that he, Manafort, and Kushner eagerly took a meeting for the express purpose of colluding with Russia.

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THE CORRUPTION OF WHATABOUTISM

"Which brings me back to my first point...Why on God's good Earth would you defend any of this? Since I've been having this ridiculous argument all week, let me skip ahead. Yes, "Crooked Hillary," Ted Kennedy, and a host of other liberals did bad things. Whether those bad things were analogous to this is highly debatable.

WHAT NEXT

We already know that Trump opely implored the Russians to dig up Clinton's e-mails. We now know that Junior, Kushner, and then-campaign manager Manafort had no problem meeting with a person the believed to be an emissary of the Russian government. Moreover, not only am I unconvinced nothing damning happened in that room, I think there's merit to Chris Hayes's analysis that there was an important phone call before the meeting.

NOTE:

The Trump administration is kicking off "made in America week", today. Of course, if you like your China and Mexico products, you can still buy your "high quality" Trump suits and ties that are not made in the USA. Don't forget, First Daughter, Ivanka Trump, has boat loads of "high quality" merchandise made in China that she hopes you buy with your American money. Make America Great Again, buy Trump products that are made everywhere except in the good ole USA...

h/t Mike N.