and others. and has seen the transcripts but has not interviewed don junior. i saw that don junior said he does not discuss this meeting with his father before it happened. that s an important disclosure because investigators want to know badly whether that s true. i want to share this excerpt from the transcript, donald trump jr. is what natalia veselnitskaya was talking about. i m not sureful they were u.s. or russia-based, but business people who are supporters of the dnc. and perhaps hillary clinton were in some sort of tax scheme to avoid paying taxes to united states and russia. he asked if senator foster if veselnitskaya provided the names of those people. he answers, not that i remember.
showed don junior being asked about his july 8th statement, the one in which he claimed the meeting was solely about russian adoptions. when asked if his father had helped draft that statement. he said, i don t know. i never spoke to my father about it. remember, the post had reported that president, quote, personally dictated that statement. don junior is later asked if the president provided any edits or input for that statement. he relies, quote, he may have comments through hope hicks. remember, hope hicks had been on president trump s communication team by his side, since the beginning of the campaign. she left the white house, i want to say a couple months ago. possibly the day after she spoke to the committee. and we ve got more breaking news, moments ago the senate intelligence committee voted to advance gina haspel as president s trump to be cia director setting up a full senate vote for some time next week.
so, this transcript of don junior doesn t add up to much. it s good spin, you re right. it can make people say wow, sounds like a nothing burger. and we just got this statement from donald trump jr., i appreciate the inquiry into the judiciary. the public can say for five hours i answered every committee and was forthcoming. i once again thank chairman grassley and finestein as well as others for their courtesy and professionalism. i just want to remind the audience again, don junior answered i don t remember when asked if he spoke to his father, president donald trump about the russian investigation. so you can decide whether you believe that is or is not forth right. seth, i want to ask you about the development around the sean spicer, short-term volunteer.
out as we speak, what are you looking for? what i m looking for, stephanie, first and foremost, donald trump jr. s polite answer to the question, what were you thinking? and we know that most campaigns have said they would have called the fbi, had they been confronted with such a meeting, said, don junior says, if that s what you say, i love it. and he took the meeting. and a lot of people believe on its face that s evidence that he was intending to collude with russia. he has denied that this was collusion. but i want to see what he answered in follow-up questions about precise details of what he knew and particularly what his father knew. what we know about the meeting, there s been no evidence that the russians offered particularly incriminating ne i