Donald Trump Jr. has lashed out at BuzzFeed News for the outlet's report on possible crimes committed by President Donald Trump, accusing the wider media of subverting American democracy.
Speaking with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday evening, Trump Jr. dismissed special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and attacked media criticism of his father.
Trump Jr. accused the mainstream media of jumping to conclusions and failing to do due diligence on allegations of wrongdoing by the president and his inner circle. "They need it to be true, Laura," Trump Jr. said. "They've been pushing this nonsense for two years. They've found nothing.... If you're not sure it's true, don't push it for 14 hours straight."
The BuzzFeed report—alleging Mueller's team had proof that the president directed former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his business dealings in Russia—broke last Thursday and immediately received intense national coverage.
Pundits quickly drew comparisons with charges that resulted in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the resignation of President Richard Nixon, while others predicted the revelations would mark the beginning of the end of Trump's stint in the White House.
But in a rare official statement, Mueller's team described the reports as "not accurate." Regardless, BuzzFeed and the two journalists who wrote the story—Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold—are standing behind the article.
Trump Jr. claimed to have been a victim of questionable media tactics. "This isn't the first time that happened. You saw it right after I did my testimony, and they said, 'Oh, Donald Trump Jr. had the WikiLeaks information,' because presumably, Adam Schiff leaked it right after my testimony to them, and conveniently took out the one before the four, turning the 14th into the 4th, meaning I had it six days before the world saw it, as opposed to four days after the entire world saw it."
The 41-year-old delivered a spirited defense of the president, arguing that the media "have shot themselves in the foot time and time again, because they so desperately want this to be the truth."
He argued his father had done "a darn good job as president," despite constant media attacks. Trump Jr. pointed to American economic performance which he claimed showed "we are substantially better off than we were two short years ago before he took office because he's doing a great job. Imagine what he could do without the noise—every day there's a new reason for impeachment."
Trump's first two years in office have seen a bullish stock market, improved employment figures, rising GDP and—at last—rising real wages. A bumper tax cut for America's wealthiest citizens and corporations combined with increased spending growth—and a subsequent ballooning deficit—to sustain the economic recovery that began under President Barack Obama following the 2008 financial crisis.
The president regularly claims credit for these positive trends. But the stock market is now stuttering, the trade war with China is beginning to bite, the global economy is showing signs of slumping and the federal government is stuck in a punishing partial shutdown. With two years of his term left to go, many observers have predicted that Trump's economic honeymoon will soon come to an end.
But Trump Jr. argued his father should be left alone and allowed to focus on the presidency. "Let him do his job," he urged. "That's the job he was elected to do. And the media right now is really trying to subvert this democracy. They've done more to hurt the credibility of this country's institution as a democracy than anything in history."
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David Brennan is Newsweek's Diplomatic Correspondent covering world politics and conflicts from London with a focus on NATO, the European ... Read more
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