Krauthammer: ‘The Denial of Collusion Is Very Weak Right Now,’ ‘We Were Incompetent’ Is ‘Not a Very Good Defense’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” columnist Charles Krauthammer stated that the Trump administration’s denial of collusion is extremely weak and characterized Donald Trump Jr.’s defense as an incompetence defense.

Krauthammer said, “Well, ‘I love it’ are the fatal words. And the defense of the Trump administration, for the last six months, which I supported, was, there doesn’t appear to be a there there. This was — I was saying this was a cover-up in search of a crime. There wasn’t any evidence of collusion. There were lots of coincidences, lots of meetings, lots of nondisclosures, but that’s all circumstantial. There was nothing to show that the Trump administration was aware of or supporting the Russian interference in our elections. And this just showed up today in black and white, released by Don Jr. himself. … This is not to say that collusion is a crime. It never was. But it is to say that the denial of collusion is very weak right now, because it looks as if — I don’t know if there’s any other explanation, Don Jr. was receptive to receiving this information.”

He added, “[I]t’s a hell of a defense to say that your collusion was incompetent and that it didn’t work out. … They denied they did this. They agreed with the critics — today’s critics, that this is a bad thing to do, and they were saying for six months, we didn’t do it, there’s no evidence that we did it, how can you even imagine that we did it? Now, they’re saying, oh yeah, we did it, but it wasn’t so bad, and we were incompetent at it. That’s not a very good defense.”

Krauthammer also argued, “If you get a call to go to a certain place in the middle of the night to pick up stolen goods, and it turns out the stolen goods don’t show up, but the cops show up, I think you’re going to have a very weak story saying, well, I got swindled here. Look, this is incompetence. They got swindled. And he admits, if I had known, I wouldn’t have done this. But to say, ‘I love it,’ to be informed that the Russians are working on their behalf contradicts six months of stories.”

He also stated, “[T]o say, as some are saying, well, collusion, oh, we all do it. We did it in Israel. The Ukrainians are colluding. Come on. That is pathetic. The fact is, the Russians are an adversary, probably our most dangerous in the world. And when you get information that the Russians want to dig dirt on your opponent and give it to you and support you in your election, you go to the FBI. You don’t go to the meeting.”

Krauthammer concluded that “it may not be criminal, but [it’s] pretty wrong, pretty bad.”

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