Ex-GOP Rep hits Trump’s defense of Trump Jr.

Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers (Michigan) ripped President Trump’s defense of his son’s arrangement to meet with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign.

“I don’t think we can normalize foreign governments trying to influence a candidate by providing information,” Roger, who is the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Saturday.

{mosads}“This is a hostile intelligence service to the United States, most people know that,” he said. “And we should not normalize this behavior.”

“Opposition research is a real thing and it happens in politics every day and people throw things at each other in… politics every single election cycle. This is very different and we should not normalize it,” he added.

Roger’s comments come after it was revealed Donald Trump Jr. took part in a meeting with a Russian lawyer having been promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

The president defended his son this week, saying most people would have participated in the meeting.

“My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer,” the president said during a press conference in Paris last week.

“It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast,” he continued. “I think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting.”

“Politics isn’t the nicest business in the world, but it’s very standard.”