Democratic and Republican lawmakers' eyebrows went up Tuesday after Donald Trump Jr. released his emails with publicist Rob Goldstone setting up his June 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer. The emails between Trump Jr. and Goldstone revealed that Goldstone had offered "very-high level and sensitive information" to Trump Jr. as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was quick to release a statement condemning Trump Jr.'s meeting and the Trump administration's overall attitude towards Russia. "There's no escaping it: The Trump campaign's inner circle met with an agent of a hostile foreign power to influence the outcome of an American election," Pelosi said in the statement. "The American people face a White House riddled with shadowy Russian connections and desperate to hide the truth."
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) called the emails "wheelbarrows full of new evidence." When Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) was asked if he'd use the word "treason" to describe the emails, he said, "I think the email speaks for itself."
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On the Republican side, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) deemed the Russian lawyer's promise of compromising information on Hillary Clinton "very problematic." "Any time you're in a campaign and you get offered from a foreign government to help your campaign, the answer is 'no,'" Graham said. Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, gave Trump Jr. "credit" for releasing the emails, though he admitted they may "raise new questions."
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) took a different tack, calling Trump Jr.'s emails "the very thing we should not be distracted by." Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said the Trump Jr. story is "overblown," but when asked if he'd take such a meeting he was reportedly quick to say, "No!"
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