donald trump, jr. ed his e-mails on twitter and there's been a lot of response including from the british politician who tweeted this -- also this from eric trump. -- joining us now two men who wrote books on donald trump. michael d'antoni and tim brian. the president's initial statements today said my son is a high quality person and i applaud his transparency. were you surprised by that. >> i was surprised it was such a mild endorsement of his son. he ed the same kind of things about michael flynn before he was out. and i think just saying he's a high-quality person is almost throwing him under the bus. i would have defended my own son far more vigorously the idea that he's transparent to me that was an atta boy like you did the right thing, i think this was something he was directed to do. >> the white house has said now the president knew nothing with this until recently. in this e-mail chain donald trump, jr. is being told that the russian government is g backing his father there was no reaction to

that is donald trump jr.. donald trump jr. nothing came of the meeting because the russian woman he met with wanted to talk about adoption instead of destroying hillary clinton's campaign. that story will probably work for donald trump jr.. as the investigation proceeds because this is not a donald trump jr. story. meaning he is not the person in the most trouble in this story. donald trump jr. is now serving as a very convenient heat shield for his brother-in-law, jared kushner, who was also in that meeting, and was included on the e-mails entitled russia, clinton, private and confidential. the e-mails that set up that meeting. >> donald jr might face some legal liability for soliciting something of value to a federal campaign from a foreign citizen. that is against the law. but it is not clear that law could be applied to this kind of meeting. jared kushner is facing a much more serious criminal liability as a result of simply having received that e-mail. that alone. the e-mail. that is a serious criminal issue. for jared ku

donald trump jr. speaking to his father when his father put his father through the carrying on a affair with younger woman eagerly covered by toibed where trump was married to his donald trump jr.'s mother. the first mrs. trump. not speaking to his father might be a good idea now that both donald trumps have hired criminal defense lawyers to guide them through the investigation of their conduct durng the presidential campaign and the transition. trump biographer tim o'brien joins us next on the very troubled history of donald trump and donald trump jr. testinhuh?sting! is this thing on? come on! your turn! where do pencils go on vacation? pennsylvania! (laughter) crunchy wheat frosted sweet! kellogg's frosted mini-wheats. feed your inner kid so we know how to cover almost almoanything.hing even a swing set standoff. and we covered it, july first, twenty-fifteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ having mplaque psor

but it's going to be very hard for donald trump jr.' to mitigate the damage or change the story because trump jr. is right out there in terms of what he was looking for and e-mails are out there, corroborated the story through three individuals. it's going to be very difficult for him to back away from the story. >> we're going to continue to follow this. thanks for your instant analysis for us. he has been joining us, an expert on white collar crime and worked with members of the white house -- >> probably one observation, we've heard so much -- i would say probably from people in the administration who call the "new york times," failing "new york times," i'm going to say this week, definitely not failing. >> no kidding. >> we're going to stay on top of the story. by the time we come back after break, there may be new news. we've got all of our people on the store rix the president's son releasing the e-mails showing how the meeting arranged with a russian lawyer who has ties to the kremlin. those e-mails show donald trump, jr. show he

donald trump jr.'s revelation that he met last year with a russian lawyer promising dirt on hillary clinton. there's that and there's donald trump jr.'s changing story about it. there's also repercussions. more on all of it now from our jeff zeleny. >> reporter: the white house faces a new round of questions tonight over potential collusion between the trump campaign and russians during last year's election. fresh off president trump's meeting with vladimir putin, it is another meeting in june of 2016 between donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer that's drawing fresh scrutiny. the russian lawyer, known for her opposition to u.s. sanctions against russia over human rights, said she had damaging information about hillary clinton. the white house on the defensive again, insisting president trump didn't know about the session in trump tower that came only two weeks after he clinched the republican nomination. white house spokeswoman sara huckabee sanders said the president only learned about it in the last

donald trump jr.'s role in organizing it to congressional investigators who had questions about his foreign contacts. according to people familiar with the events. and so, ron, it seems to me that the trump administration knew this was coming out. manafort's disclosed it. the house investigators know it. now it's on jared kushner's disclosure form finally, and it represents a possible crime in jared kushner's case because he did not put it on his original disclosure forms. so at some point, the trump administration has the decision, do we want to see this thing come out in the middle of a house hearing that jared kushner is the witness at, where it lands as a bombshell on jared kushner, or do we want it to come out before that and maybe come out with donald trump jr. being the star of the article because donald trump jr. doesn't face the same criminal liability as jared kushner does. >> yeah. you know, they're shaping up for a very interesting thanksgiving dinner in the trump household. i mean it does

donald trump jr. should be called before congress to testify. >> it's also a continuing pattern that we've seen since the election of trump campaign and trump administration officials who have conveniently forgotten meetings with russians, only when they are then presented with evidence they have to recant and acknowledge those kind of meetings. it is why we've got to continue this investigation. >> reporter: tonight donald trump jr. has retained a lawyer on the matter. on twitter, he said he's happy to work with a committee to pass on what i know. now, he's likely to get that chance, anderson. senator warner and other senators say they do want to hear from him so he could be talking to members of congress as well as to the special counsel at the justice department. now, all of this is coming as the white house is trying to downplay any of this. they said the president did not know that any of this happened until this weekend. but sarah huckabee sanders at that briefing today, anderson, also could not

donald trump jr. clearly seems to welcome the offer telling goldstone if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer. now this evening, donald trump jr. is speaking ot about those e-mails and the meet with the russian lawyer saying he would have done things differently. let's take a listen to some of his interview on fox news that aired just a few minutes ago. >> do you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing -- there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through this stuff. it was just a waste of 20 minutes, which was a shame. >> did you ever meet with any other person from russia that you know of? >> i've probably met with other people from russia. >> not in the context of actual -- a formalized meeting or anything like that. because, why would i? in the grand scheme of things, how busy we were. it was much more important to do this. this was a courtesy to an acquaintance. >> our correspondents and analysts are here to

donald trump will react, donald trump jr. will react. donald trump jr. will react. muc did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet that's up to 16 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to faster downloads with internet speeds up to 250 megabits per second. get fast internet and add phone and tv now for only $34.90 more per month. call today. comcast business. built for business. >> sean: welcome back to "hannity." shortly after "new york times" wrote about the meeting with a russian lawyer last year, the rush obsessed media and the country went on the attack. let's take a look. >> even if you accept his sunday version, accepted, act no questions, has no suspicions, he's in a world of hurt. >> the president's son was informed, hey, the russian government has dirt on hillary clinton. and apparently the response to that was... >> he was admitting that he had met with this russian lawyer for the purpose

but that undercuts what donald trump jr. said that he had no idea the identity of this person or the identity. >> i'm not blaming it on donald trump jr., though. i think this whole thing, when you look at it, as a lawyer i look at the totality of the circumstances and the fax. this was a setup to do what? to really get in on the magnitsky act. that's what this was about. she went right down to washington, d.c., did the same thing in washington. and the end result of that was nothing. so i think the whole thing was put-up to begin with. >> but, you know, every former intelligence officer, cia officers who worked on russia for decades say the m.o. of intelligence services, many intelligence services, but particularly the russians is to use cutouts, people not directly employed by the fsb, to make an early approach to gather information. you can't say for sure that wasn't what was happening here. nobody at this point can say for sure, correct? >> all we know, all we know, all we know is the facts that we know. and the facts that

donald trump, jr. pre-empted it. i think there's been some frustration on the part of donald trump, jr. and people close to him about how the last couple of days have gone in terms of the disclosures and the slow roll, drip, drip. in terms of kushner, i'm not entirely sure what you're asking me. >> our understanding is that for a second time he has amended the information that he gave in order to get a security clearance. he gave that once earlier and more recently he did that to include this meeting that he hadn't previously disclosed. my question is, was he aware that you were investigating and that's why he amended this or was this just a coincidence? >> more broadly, without getting into specifics about our reporting and the nature of it, jared kushner did amend his security clearance form, his foreign contact disclosures. i believe it was for a second time, included some reference to this meeting. around the same time paul manafort provided some more specifics to one of the congressional committees that is invest

i bring up this point of the e-mails when they say to donald trump jr. also send this info to your father, but that is his long time assistant of now president trump. so if you're bob mueller is that where you're going next? you want the e-mails to see if this went to the top? the. >> absolutely. i listened to the interview that don jr. had and he stated unequivocally that there had been no conversation with his father. at that particular point in time there were probably hundreds of meetings every day. there were dozens of meetings. it's going to be very, very interesting as you just said when the subpoena powers start to bring in more of this, physical evidence that they're able to look at and if those e-mails are available it's going to be trouble. >> let's listen to more of don jr. from last night. he's saying this is all about transparent. this is a white house that has been anything but transparent. many critics have said talking about this new transparency. >> did you hand over any and all documents? >> i will. i said it yesterday. more than happy

this particular leak came at least where i printed it out from, was donald trump jr.'s twitter account and these e-mails are staggering. again, this unquestionably depicts somebody saying the russian government wants to help the trump campaign with documents damping to hillary clinton, and donald trump jr. saying, "i love it" and setting up a meeting to do so. >> and taking the meeting. >> taking the meeting. what took place at that meeting is a whole other question and we have different versions of events. shifting versions in some cases. we still haven't heard from paul manafort at the meeting, or jared kushner, who was at the meeting's we heard from the russian attorney in question who's depicting this all as the trump people wanted damaging information on hillary. >> right. >> but she didn't want to talk about that. again, grain of salt when it comes to, to her story as well as anybody else's who hasn't been up front about this, but it's -- it's a staggering turn of events, and it's rather momentous. this can't just be -- this can't be dismissed as people out to ge

donald trump jr. is, and i quote, mueller territory. in other words, it should be left solely up to the special prosecutor. what's the white house reaction to that? >> again, i would refer you to the outside special counsel, and i think that's something that they could work on together. >> so they have -- you have no reaction to what senator rubio said? >> no, i don't, john. >> all right. my other question is about personnel. the president has -- and you pointed this out yesterday in the form you handed out, numerous judicial vacancies to fill, including four on the controversial ninth circuit court of appeals. in an effort to speed this up, will the administration waive the blue slip process from senators or, and the opinion of the american bar association. >> i don't know if those conversations have taken place about whether or not to waive that in order to expedite but i'll be happy to check into it for you. >> i have three but i'll try to be quick. >> three? >> secretary mattis said about a month

tom, donald trump jr.'s lawyer says this -- much ado about nothing. >> not surprising he'd say that. the fact of the matter is i think this incident shows something incredibly profound about the trump administration and the trump family, which is there are no rules. if you think about it, they went to meet with a russian to try and conspire against the clinton campaign. they then lied about it. they then denied it. they then ultimately said it's absolutely unimportant and hired a mafia lawyer. what we see is two things -- a culture of deceit at every level, consistently, and secondly, a truly family oriented culture where you see not just his son but donald trump jr., his son-in-law, who's purported to be his main adviser in his campaign organizer. so when you see that, don't forget, this is the family where his daughter sat in for him at the g-20. >> i actually learned from someone within the trump administration it was president trump himself who was insistent upon having his daughter sit in for him at th

goldstone a little known publicist expected to donald trump, jr. back to the miss universe pageant providing a connection between donald trump and this russian oligarch that is connected to vladimir putin. it is a connect web. >> the attorney denies they are anyway connected to the kremlin, just want to point that ought and denied that either men had a meeting with the russian prosecutor which is what goldstone indicated in that e-mail so on the record they're publicly denying it. we have news on the special counsel robert mueller investigation what can you tell us about that. >> my colleagues here telling me tonight in light of this e-mail and preiously undisclosed meeting special counsel robert mueller will investigate that meeting and e-mails involved. it is interesting that the special counsel didn't know about this meeting until very recently and the source was a refiling of jared kushner's security clearance form fs86 the first time he filed listed no meetings and then file ltd again listed some of them and then resubmitted with meeting, and t

"the new york times" reports that donald trump jr. took this meeting because he was promised damaging information about hillary clinton. >> and it wasn't just trump jr. that showed up. he brought others. significant others, son-in-law jared kushner, son-in-law to the president. and also then campaign chairman, paul manafort. the admission is a full 180-degree turn from a statement hours earlier when donald jr. said the meeting was to discuss the issue of russian adoptions. so there's a lot to unpack here. what does this mean about the trump team's willingness to accept help from russia? we're covering all angles of the story here in the united states and in moscow. let's begin at the white house with suzanne malveaux. good morning, suzanne. >> reporter: good morning, john and poppy. the white house is in full battle mode, pushing back hard on this story. a full development we saw over the weekend first reported by "the new york times" that donald trump jr., in fact, did have a meeting with a russian national during the campaign, that t

donald trump jr. met with a russian lawyer after a middleman told him that she was a russian government official who had information that was part of russia's effort to help donald trump win the u.s. presidential election. that's according to an e-mail chain that donald trump jr. himself released today on twitter. he tweeted it just minutes before he knew that "the new york times" was posting a story with all of the details from those same e-mails. in the message, a british publicist claims to be working on behalf of a russian pop star and the pop star's father who is a russian billionaire with close ties to the kremlin. the publicist claims the pop star and the pop star's father met with the russian lawyer and that she had dirt on hillary clinton. the publicist later arrange as meeting between the russian lawyer and donald trump jr. at trump tower in new york city. "the new york times" wrote news over the weekend. the newspaper reported that the president's son met with the lawyer in june of last year

the president's son, donald trump jr. trying to defend himself and explain what is arguably the most incriminating piece of public information into russian interference in the election squl there was any cuclusion between the trump team and the kremlin. emails pre-emptively released by trump jr. just before they were about to be published by the new york times, he was offered damaging information about hillary clinton. it quote is part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump unquote. in a new interview tonight trump jr. siz he did not tell his father about a meeting with a russian lawyer. he claimed there was nothing to tell but the new york times is reporting that president trump was involved in the damage control about this story in recent days. signing off on his son's initial and incomplete account of his meeting with that russian lawyer. tonight cnn has learned that special counsel bob mueller is planning to investigate that meeting and that donald trump jr.'s email exchanges will be part of that as well.

donald trump jr. was told in advance that this attorney was with or representing the russian government. as for that attorney, he met with my colleague, keir simmons, who tracked her down in moscow, in an exclusive interview she denied any connection with the kremlin but in an apparent contradiction to what donald trump jr. has said, the attorney says the premise for the meeting was to discuss sanctions. >> reporter: what was the purpose of that meeting? >> translator: i never knew who else would be attending the meeting. all i knew that mr. donald trump jr. was willing to meet with me. i could recognize the young gentleman who was only present in the meeting for probably the first seven to ten minutes and then he stood up and left the room. it was mr. jared kushner and he never came back, by the way. and the other individual who was at the same meeting was always looking at his phone. he was reading something. he never took any active part in the conversation. that was mr. manafort. >> reporter: they

donald trump jr. just releasing a chain of e-mails leading up to his meeting with a russian lawyer. a meeting where he hoped to get information damaging to hillary clinton. he released those e-mails, by the way, on twitter just after being notified by the "new york times" that it was about to publish those e-mails. this is from one of the e-mails donald trump jr. just posted. it's from the british publicist rob goldstone who helped around the meeting with a russian lawyer. "good morning, emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting." emin is a pop star whose businessman father has ties to president putin and did businessry president trump. the e-mail says, "the crown mince met with emin and offered information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father." continuing -- "this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but it part of the russia and its government's support for mr. trump helped along by em

when goldstone says to donald trump jr. is a meeting and part of the russian's government support to mr. trump, he -- that implies -- he presents it as if donald trump jr. already knows that the russian government is supporting mr. trump. so i think there's more about the context here we need to know. yes, it is possible she was unwitting and this was a dangle, or it is possible that there's a bigger picture here, more support. you know, today we have the mcclatchy story come out about the possibility that some of the data work that jared kushner had paid for made its way to the russians so that the russians then were able to target the fake news that they were pumping out through their bots on the internet through facebook and twitter, to states like michigan which basically hillary clinton lost by about 5,000 votes. so, you know, there might be a bigger picture here. i would like to know the context and why that was sort of obvious to donald trump that russia is supporting his father. >> you know, one of the things that -

right now, donald trump, jr., is being put in a very, very precarious position. >> sandra: what happens now? this statement from donald trump, jr., was just released, emails were just released. we have yet to hear the president respond to the release of information. what does this go? >> ari: is this criminality, and i don't think it is, but have to wait a long time for that to be resolved. the rest is political. the best thing that could happen to the trump white house is that the democrats hyperventilate and call it treason too far. it was not that, but it was bad judgment. if the democrats overplayed their hand, they'll make a bad decision. >> sandra: is donald trump, jr., doing a bad job of handling this? >> ari: yes. >> harris: two things, during the 2:00 our eastern when they are expecting another news conference, not news conference, but first press briefing. what we had first since president trump came back yesterday. tonight, exclusively on hannity, donald, jr., will be there. >> melissa: we've talked a lot about how the president approaches us from a business perspective and i

donald trump. with donald trump jr. implying this is what you say i love it. here's what donald trump jr. said today. >> things a going a million miles an hour again and hey, came i've heard about all these thing and maybe this is something i should hear them out. this was basic information that was going to be possible. i didn't know these guys. if the talent manager from miss universe had this thing. i wanted to hear them out. >> did you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing there was nothing to tell. i wouldn't remember it until you start skouerring through the stuff it's literally a waist of 20 minutes which is a shame. >> he only released this stuff after the "new york times" had published them now he's telling the media it's a wasted 20 minute. david what's your response? >> i remember when i saw the initial story over the weekend when he was saying we met and talked about adoption. i was saying why would you have a meeting about adoption with this connected russian lawyer and why bring in jared kushner and paul manafort two leading figures in the campaign f

donald trump jr. has released an e-mail chain detailing the plan for his secret meeting he had with the russian lawyer last summer during the campaign. a meeting that clearly was set up with the intent of getting incriminating evidence against hillary clinton from the russians. the meeting that we're told the fbi did not know about until now. the first e-mail from rob gold stone, a confidant of the trump family, sent june 3, 2016, reads in part, the crown prosecutor russia met with his father this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your dealing with your father. this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of russia and its government support for mr. trump. i can also send this info to your father, but it is ultrasensitive so wanted to send to you first. trump jr. then replies, thanks, rob, i appreciate it. if it

rob goldstone, the person who set up the meeting e-mails, donald trump jr. says "this is obviously high level and sensitive information but part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump" with donald trump jr. replying "if it's what you said, i love it!" and here's what he said tonight. >> things are going a million miles an hour again. and hey, wait a minute, i've heard about all of these things, maybe this is something, i should hear him out. this was basic information that was probably there. i didn't know them well enough to know if this talent manager from miss universe had this kind of thing, so i wanted to hear him out. >> do you tell your father anything about this? >> no. it was such a nothing, there was nothing to tell. i mean, i wouldn't have even remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. it was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame. >> so, donald trump jr.'s story kept changing, it keeps changing. he only released these e-mails after "the new york times" was about to publish them, and now he's describing

and again, donald trump jr. has said the same thing, that it was in fact from him and i believe it was his lawyer -- i'm sure his lawyer was in consultation. >> you keep saying you don't represent donald trump jr., but can you explain -- >> right. >> -- why it took -- why it's taken six days to continue to find out more people who were in this meeting, more discussions about those e-mails? why was all this trickled out like this? it looks like a pattern of trying to at least if not total cover it up, at least mislead or deceive. >> well, look, you start with -- you use the phrase cover up. let's be realistic here. you've had lawyers on your broadcast and nbc has had lawyers on their network and everybody is coming to the same conclusion about the legality. there's nothing illegal about that meeting. covering up is a big word to use but there was nothing illegal to cover up. with regard to how the information came out, as i said, that was information that was controlled not by my client, not by the president, it w

they wanted it so badly. >> harris: donald trump, jr., is not an employee. he is now working in the white house. donald trump, jr., he can make whatever statements separate. he'll be on "hannity" tonight exclusively. >> i don't know the players that are there. this woman or the relationships or any of that. it would be inappropriate, really, for me to speak to that. i've never been in a presidential campaign. in that capacity. that is not an interface that i would have. i think what it speaks to is the frustration of the american people in the way you see all of this vicar, baker, personal attacks and campaign , and what the american people want is for us to make freedom important, keep this country free to hand up to future generations, and we respect that freedom. we treasure it. we do our part to make certain that freedom is going to stand at the end of the day. i think this is the time for us again to look at things that are happening from the left, the right, and for us as members of congress to say, commit ourselves to the quorum, civil conduct, get the

i'm randy kaye this is a cnn special report "the first son, the life of donald trump jr. ". ♪ ♪ >> donald born to donald and ivana trump on the last day of 1977. heir to a legacy still being built. destined to loom large over manhattan. >> i think one has to have some compassion for someone who its thrust into this role of almost a prince of new york city. >> reporter: donald trump jr. grew as the empire grew around him. a toddler when his father made his name as a big manhattan developer. revitalizing an old abandoned hotel. in grade school when ground was broken for trump tower. >> i remember playing with trucks on the floor of his office. going trick-or-treating in his office. >> to see dad, don jr. and eventually his siblings would need to visit him in the office. >> i think throughout our lives. he has always been there. usually on his terms. wasn't a typical, let's go play catch in the backyard, father son relationship. >> an atypical relationship, that worked. until, the early 1990s. when donald and ivana trump divorced. the world read all about it. >> i was 12. it was a difficult

to recap, donald trump jr. got an e-mail from a sic promoter, had curious language, claiming there was a prosecutor in russia with information. that does not exist. there's delivering damaging information. there's no evidence from jr. asked the russian lawyer to return to come back with damaging information. there's no evidence that donald trump jr. promised anything in return. so the question is where is the collusion? let's bring in jordan, the executive director for the american center of law and justice. bad judgment to take the meeting or a crime? what do you think? >> it's totally a political decision. and if you go back to this period of time, this is prepaul man ford and the ukrainian connections there and the putin connections there. this is preeven hacking information coming out. so it's easy for us to say, yeah, if this was election next time around, would it maybe draw more attention in your e-mail account if it said the russians want to meet with you about information? sure. at this point in time at

the senate judiciary committee wants to hear from donald trump jr. e with amy klobuchar earlier this evening. your committee wants donald trump jr. to come testify. what questions do you want answered by him? >> well, i don't think so. i think the first immediate question is what other contacts did he have with the russians. as you note in the e-mail, it says that it's part of the work that was being done. so clearly you want to know what other work was being done by the russians, what's his knowledge and then of course you want to hear from manafort which both chairman grassley and senator feinstein are also requesting that he testify. and so there are so many questions relating to this. this is the only thing we know now is this e-mail in which here he is, you hear your dad is running for president, you get an e-mail about russians looking for dirt on hillary clinton and instead of giving it to the lawyers or giving it to someone in charge, you actually say, i love it. well, i actually hate it. i hate it because i think that this is a foreign entity

donald trump jr. facing an expose has released what he says that e-mail exchange with the trump family business associate last year during the campaign. the e-mails make it clear that the trump associate, publicist rob goldstone, specifically offered what he described as information from the kremlin. russian officials quoted in the e-mail saying that goldstone said offered to provide the trump campaign with some official document sent information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father. this is obviously very high level and sensitive information, said the e-mail, but is part of russia and its government support for mr. trump, closed quote. donald jr.'s response, 15 minutes later, thanks, rob, i appreciate that. he went on to say, if it is what you say, i love it. especially later in the summer. peter alexander is at white house. peter, an extraordinary e-mail chain. he says it is legitimate and the new york times said now from its managing ed

what exactly do donald trump jr.'s e-mails prove? >> criminal conspiracy to defraud the united states, plain and simple. >> will he have to testify? >> rest assured donald trump jr. would be somebody we would want to talk to. >> top democrat on the senate intelligence committee will be here live. >> and health care hustle? republicans taking another crack at repealing obamacare. >> i am sitting in the oval office with a pen in hand, waiting for our senators to give it to me. >> breaking news on the latest development that threatens to derail him. a key senator reveals how she'll vote next. >>> plus, the biggest political minds with insights on what happens next. >>> hello, i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is disapproving. a brand new poll out this morning shows president trump has hit a new low with american voters. just 36% say they approve of the way he's doing his job with 58% of americans saying they disapprove. remarkably almost half of the american people saying they strongly disapprove of the job he's

i mean, you know, donald trump jr. said this is before everybody knew about russia's alleged involvement in the campaign. it's right there until the e-mail that they support donald trump. like i said, i think this is something that would normally send off alarm bells to somebody. it seems to be something that didn't with them because he is -- when all this news came out, he was dismissive of it. what's the big deal. i'm sure i'm not the only one that has done this. the idea that they were suggesting that maybe he sounded to the fbi, he made light of it. itis not something that seems concerning to them and they were happy to work with the russians. this is like if john podesta, bill clinton and chelsea clinton had a meeting with russia saying they supported hillary clinton and they were bringing information to harm donald trump. >> if it came -- in that meeting, they said nothing came of the meeting. ken, i was guess there would likely be another benghazi style hearing on capitol hill, no? >> i fully expect to see donald

donald trump jr. didn't. jared kushner knew it before anyone else in the trump family because jared kushner knew exactly when he recently updated standard form 86, to include this meeting. jared kushner knew that at some point this meeting was going to leak, and if it didn't leak, jared kushner was going to be asked about it. and what could have been the most dramatic, bombastic moment of all the congressional hearings, jared kushner being asked under oath about this meeting in the hearing. he would have been forced to admit that, yes, there was another meeting with the russians that he failed to disclose others the form required him to do. we already knew that jared kushner had to update the form for a meeting that he and michael flynn had with the russian ambassador. so jared kushner had a decision to make after updating this form and including the meeting with donald trump jr. and paul manafort and a russian lawyer and her translator. jared kushner had to decide when he wanted that story to come out. when i

donald trump jr. he made this request along with the republican chairman of the committee. he wants more information from kushner raising concerns that kushner did not disclose some key meetings in warner's words three meetings with russian officials left off some initial forms as well as information he is looking for from donald trump jr., presumably information related to this newly revealed meeting from last year with this russian lawyer. now, the question is when those two men will come before the committee. warner would not say when that would happen. either richard burr who i talked to about as well. but clearly these two men of interest to the committee as they are demanding more records. >> and i know you also had a chance to speak with the top republican in the senate judiciary committee, and he had something important to say. >> yeah, he did. he actually wants to hear from donald trump jr. in his own committee. this is the first time we've heard a republican chairman making this formal reque

she referred every question to donald trump jr.'s lawyers, but she also said the president was frustrated, not at the meeting, but at the fact that washington is focused on russia. donald trump jr. said so himself. he loved the idea of having the russian government help his father's presidential bid and take down hillary clinton. the bombshell contained in, males t -- e-mails his father released today. the crown prince of russia met with his far aras this morning, and in their meeting offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary skmand her dealings with russia and would be very helpful to your father. this is obviously very high level and sensitive information. but it's part of russia's government support for mr. trump. he said, i love it. especially later in the summer, he responded. six weeks later, a meeting took place in trump tower with donald trump's son, his son-in-law jared kushner and campaign manager paul manafort. donald trump jr. said the meeting reveal

on june 3rd 2016, goldstone emailed donald trump jr. saying good morning, just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. the crown prosecutor of russia met with his father this morning and offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and will be very useful to your father. this is very high-level and sensitive information. but it's part of russia and government support for mr. trump. what do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to her about it directly? i can also send this information to your father but it is ultrasensitive. it wanted to to you first. best, bob goldstone. donald trump jr. replied 20 minutes later. in following emails, the two go back and forth about setting up that phone call. they eventually work out a time for a sitdown meeting with this russian lawyer. donald trump jr. also released a statement explaining that he was releasing the emails, to be tran

we also learned along with donald trump jr. also present at the meeting was jared kushner and then campaign manager paul manafort. we had a statement from donald trump jr. that this meeting happened, and he said, i was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance i had with the 2013 miss universe pageant who said they might have information helpful to the campaign. i asked jared and paul to attend but told them nothing of the substance. we had a meeting in june 2016. the woman stated she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the democratic national committee, and supporting miss clinton. her statements were vague and made no sense. no details of supporting information was provided or even offered. it quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information. she then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of russian children. i want to bring back our panel to discuss what we're learning tonight. joining me, bob and jay. what we've been able to confirm here at cnn was, again, those three pe

and donald trump jr., you know, not only was he amenable. brought senior members of the trump campaign. that may have sent a message in fact it was a dangle that that i'd be open to future meetings. >> as someone who's covered russia for a long time n the interview with keir simmons yesterday on nbc, the attorney said i'm not working with the russian government, i have no connection to the russian government. so that would put that at a random meeting between a woman who wanted to be put in touch with donald trump and an attorney from russia. does that fly with you? >> obviously vladimir putin remember has denied having any involvement with the 2016 hacking. people who have followed this closely whose opinion i trust on this believe that not only is the lawyer somebody who's very connected to the kremlin and has been used at their behest in a number of very politically sensitive cases before. but also, you know, in the same way that russia didn't actually go out of its way to hide the role. what i found living there for four years is that th

he does want donald trump jr. to testify in public, believing he should turn over all records to the senate intelligence committee, and i asked him specifically about if he has any concerns about this meeting. he just said this is something that an intelligence committee will look at. he did not answer that question, and when two other reporters asked him similar questions, he punted. certainly different leaders on the hill. >> let's bring in analyst jeffrey toobin. jeffrey, how serious is this, these e-mails from a legal perspective? >> it's certainly very serious, but it's also important to say there is a long way to go, and these e-mails in and of themselves are not proof of any crimes. two things to think about. one is, it is a crime for campaign officials to solicit anything of value from a foreign government. so the question is, was anything solicited here of value? were e-mails solicited, was hacking solicited? that is a question investigators will want to explore. the other issue is that jared kushner, who

where goldstone was familiar with donald trump jr. ldstone saying he could introduce donald trump jr. to the lawyer connected to the kremlin. the lawyer of course, offering information provided by, chaika, the prosecutor general in russia. who is, again, close to vladamir putin. offering this important information which he says is damaging to hillary clinton. and, goldstone saying that e-mail part of a larger -- effort by the russian government to influence the campaign to the advantage of donald trump. it is admittedly, a complicated web. putting all the faces on the screen there. but again none of the people involved in the e-mail came out of nowhere. the lawyer connected back to this prosecutor. goldstone, this, little known, publicist. miss universe, providing the connection between donald trump and the russian oligarch back to vladamir putin. a complicated web. when you get to the e-mail. this is the network. >> should point out. talked to the attorney for the, the russian pop star and his father. and they, they, the attorney deni

its to the do with donald trump jr. needlessly draging it out. ump surrogates latched on to that word and praised donald trump jr. for sharing it. >> he was transparent. the entire chain. >> we are incredibly impressed by don jr.'s transparency. >> because it's completely transparent. >> how refreshing to have somebody take responsibility, be transparent. >> donald trump jr. is transparent. >> so listening to that you're given the idea that donald trump jr. is the very essence of transparency. >> did you ever meet with any other person from russia that you know? >> i've probably met with other people from russia but not in the context of a formalized meeting or anything like that. because why would i? >> today we learned the 2016 meeting that there the transparency is about was attended by at least eight people including another russian who has ties with russian intelligence, an allegation he denies. more on what the drum beat of shoes dropping is doing especially among republicans. >> someone close to the president needs get everyone connected wi

speaker, on july 11, donald trump jr. released a series of emails regarding his meeting with a russian government lawyer and an individual associated with the russian intelligence. don jr.'s emails are a smoke gun. it proves that the trump campaign was not only aware of the russian government's efforts to med until our elections, they were -- meddle in our elections, they were enthusiastic about accepting russian support. what follows are the contents of those emails. they paint a disturbing picture of a campaign and now an administration willing to break the law and sell out to an adversary of the united states, in order to advance their own petty interests. our hope is that the american people will carefully consider the content of these messages and what they say about the fitness of donald trump and his senior advisors to hold high office. we'll begin. a comment posted by donald trump jr. on july 11, 2017. to everyone, in order to be totally transparent, which we now know he wasn't even in this email, i'm releasing the

donald trump, jr. and questions of election meddling by russia. donald trump, jr. released the email chain with his plans for meeting with a russian lawyer last year. that lawyer allegedly had connections to the kremlin. emails between trump, jr. and rod goldstone shown in part gold stone appearing to offer incriminating information about hillary clinton as "part of russia and its government support for mr. trump." trump, jr. replying "seems we have some time and if it's what you say, i love it. especially later in the summer." white house responded today and with a written statement. >> i have a quick statement i will read from the president. "my son is a high-quality person and i applaud his transparency. beyond that, going to have to refer everything on this matter to counsel and outside counsel and won't have anything else to add." >> bret: earlier in an interview with nbc news, the russian lawyer at the center of it denied working with the russian government or having any links to it at all. >> the

that comes as donald trump jr. changes his story about a 2016 campaign meeting, now admitting he met with a russian lawyer hoping for information on hillary clinton. >>> impenetrable or not? president trump changes his story about working with russia to form an impenetrabl erke cyb security unit. he dropped the subject as soon as he brought it up. >>> false accusations of classified information. >>> world leaders let kim jong-un's long-range missile test pass without any apparent consequences. are they giving north korea a green light? >>> i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room. >>> breaking news. the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee, senator mark warner, said the president has clear evidence that the trump campaign saw damaging information about hillary clinton from a possible foreign agent. that comes as donald trump jr. changed his story about a meeting during the campaign, admitting he met a russian lawyer hoping to collect information on hillary clinton. also attending were then-campai

donald trump jr. is here to set the record straight about his june 2016 meeting with the russian lawyer. he will join us for an exclusive in-depth interview. that's coming up. by the way, for all the members of the destroy-trump-media thatt have to tune into my show tonight, get out your pad and pen. you may actually learn a thing orgh two. we have a message for you. maybe you want to take notes. we want to lay out the real scandals that you are not covering that you should be covering. if you were actual journalists, youth would be. let's lay out the facts of this story. that is tonight. important opening monologue. earlier today after "the new york times" reported on the content of email exchanges prior to this meeting at trump tower, donald trump jr. released what he said is the entire email chain. contact was initiated by rob goldstone, a music publicist who represents a russian pop star who knows the trump family from the 2013 miss universe pageant that took place in moscow. on june 3rd 2016, gol

donald trump jr. and this russian lawyer. does this give you any sense how this was received in trump world? >> we don't have a broader sense at the moment, you know, whether there was some bigger take away. you know, the people around the president have -- and donald jr. has said the president was not aware of this, so it's entirely possible given the way this campaign ran. we only know what we know which is there was this meeting, that there was an approach that was made related to damaging information about hillary clinton that was advertised as having some kind of russian government relation. and that did not serve as a det deterrent. to be clear this was a couple of days this meeting took place, i think it was four or five days before it was reported that russian government hackers had infiltrated the servers. and this was many weeks before the john pa december that e-mails became an issue. so it's not clear this was on don junior's radar the same way. however it was clear russia was considered a