Republican Lee Zeldin Sees ‘Condiment’ on Don Jr.’s Russia ‘Nothing Burger’
Rep. Lee Zeldin Image by Wikimedia Commons
GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin suggested he was concerned about Donald Trump Jr.’s emails regarding getting damaging information about Hillary Clinton from Russia, saying there was perhaps “some condiment on this nothing burger.”
I voted for @POTUS last Nov. & want him & USA to succeed, but that meeting, given that email chain just released, is a big no-no.
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) July 11, 2017
Zeldin would not yet say whether he thought Trump Jr.’s actions could be considered criminal. “You need a lot of other information, a lot of other components of this in order to actually state that this is, you know, these are the elements of a crime,” Zeldin said.
But Zeldin also said United States politicians “don’t meet with foreign, hostile governments…to damage political opponents.”
That contradicted some of his GOP colleagues, who spouted White House talking points that the meeting was routing opposition research.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus called the revelations about Trump Jr. a “nothing burger,” although that was before emails revealed that Trump Jr. enthusiastically sought dirt from the Russian government.
Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter ,@__jbernstein
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
