How long will America believe Trump's lies about Russia?

How plausible is it, really, that this is all one giant misunderstanding?

Donald Trump Jr. with his father
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The latest bombshell incriminating report on the Trump administration's ties to Russia came on Saturday, from The New York Times, and boy, was it a stemwinder. Three "advisers to the White House" told reporters that on June 9, 2016, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., along with Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, attended a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya after she promised them damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Follow-up reports have made it clear that this trio of truculent Trumpians knew perfectly well that the purpose of the meeting was to receive dirt on the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The administration's emerging script for new developments in the Trump-Russia scandal is very clear: A member of the Trump family, whether the president himself or one of his children, will basically admit to the whole thing on the record. Because the Times story was sourced to three White House advisers, there was little sense in denying the meeting took place. Trump the Junior immediately copped to it when the first story broke on Saturday, but claimed it was "a short introductory meeting" where they talked about the complicated issue of adoptions.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.