before they have to file their story, and that doesn t help you in the long term. howie: as a matter of white house damage control with the press, how damaging is it in the case of the president s son, his first white house statement says it s a meeting primarily about adoption. the second statement says we were told this russian lawyer has opo information about hillary clinton. and then we learn there was a russian counter intelligence officer there. ari: this is a classic case of how not to do it. bill clinton s white house taught everybody how to do it. when you have damaging news put it all out and do it on day one. the trump white house did the opposite. they stretched it out from a
evidence that donald trump and his campaign if collaborated with russia on the john podesta or dnc emails. that s the collusion that is the damaging collusion. this meeting was foolish and should never have been done it was an opening to russia, no one should open to russia. i don t see the crime in the meeting. i think that s the distinction the white house wants to make. howie: i am not saying anything illegal, but it does not look good. that was an off-camera briefing by the press secretary. they have moved most of of the briefings to audio only. that may cut down on grandstanding by tv reporters. but does it also inhibit the administration s ability to get its message out?
one-day into a four or five day story. i don t know the white house s thinking that they could keep the additional details secret. turn it into a one or two-day story. this whole question of this story about donald trump has oozed out came up in a briefing with sarah huckabee and materials. the drip drip drip is undermining the credibility of this administration. i think it s under mining the credibility of the media because they drip drip drip things that don t have much to do about nothing. howie: undermining the credibility of the media not the white house? ari: here is the core issue. how significant is this meeting. as somebody who has been critical of the white house and donald trump, jr. unless and until there is
with xfinity on demand. from action, to comedy, to drama. this summer hbo and xfinity have you covered. and catch the game of thrones season 7 premiere on july 16th. winter is coming to xfinity. howie: donald trump, jr. set up that campaign meeting with the russian lawyer but many in the media want to make it about jared kushner who sat in on part of the meeting. jared kushner is in more legal trouble for that meeting than don, jr. and paul manafort is. five years more. who would leak a story that makes their brother-in-law look like an idiot. even if their brother-in-law is an idiot.
howie: it s fair to criticize him for not disclosing the meeting on his security clearance form. why is the press trying to make this about jared? katie: there was an allegation the emails came from jared kushner s legal team. howie: they discovered these emails in the course of researching. katie: jared kushner is the reason why trump won the presidency. he had an operation going on to target voters. he was behind the strategy getting donald trump elected in mitch can. he didn t go out and cause problems for trump. the media hates donald trump and they want to take him down and