Fox host downplays Cohen revelation that Trump lied about Trump Tower meeting: ‘So what?’
Fox News host Chris Wallace on Friday shrugged off Michael Cohen’s revelation that then-candidate Trump lied about knowing ahead of time of a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin.
“So what?” Wallace asked rhetorically about Cohen’s assertion. The network host stated the meeting “falls a long way from any hint of collusion between Trump and the Kremlin.”
Wallace’s comments follow after CNN reported earlier this week that Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, claimed that Trump knew of the meeting between his son, Trump Jr., and the Russians during his campaign for the presidency. The Russians were expected to offer Trump’s campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to the network.
CNN also reported that Cohen is expected to say the same to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading a more than yearlong investigation into possible collusion between the Kremlin and Trump campaign associates.
According to CNN, Cohen does not have evidence to support his story.
“It seems to me the worst that you could say — assuming that Cohen is telling the truth now — is that Donald Trump lied back in 2017. But so what?,” Wallace said on “America’s Newsroom.”
“It’s not admirable, you would hope he wouldn’t, but it is not breaking the law, lying to the media,” he continued. “He certainly wouldn’t be the first president, if he did, who had done so.”
When asked in July 2017 about the Trump Tower meeting, Trump stated that he had “only heard about it two or three days ago.”
Trump’s lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, slammed Cohen on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” on Thursday, asserting that Trump wasn’t aware of the meeting.
“He didn’t know about it,” Giuliani asserted before later impugning Cohen’s character.
“He’s been lying all week. He’s been lying for years,” Giuliani said. “I don’t see how he has any credibility.”
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