Trump Defends Son: Says Most Would've Taken Meeting.
TAPPER: We're back with more on our politics lead. President Trump's defense of his son meeting with a Russian government lawyer, that's what he thought anyway, went global today. My political panel is here with me. Let's start by playing some of what President Trump said during his news conference today when asked about this issue.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. I've had many people -- I have only been in politics for two years, but I've had many people call up, oh gee, we have information on this factor or this person or frankly Hillary, that's very standard in politics.</s>TAPPER: Now, as a matter of fact, what the president described is standard in politics, but coming from the Russian government, that is not standard in politics, Angela.</s>ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, it's definitely not standard in politics. In fact, you've heard Trump supporters frequently over the last day or two cite an example of a DNC consultant meeting with a foreign government. And the issue to me is, they talked frequently about this saying it's the exact same thing as Russia, it's not. It's apples and oranges. This is something that came from the top down. In fact, you saw it in black and white frankly in the e-mails that Donald Trump received and sent.</s>TAPPER: And, David, I know that it's a father defending his son, and I get that. I have a son. But, you know, first of all he called his son a kid or whatever, I think he's 39 years old. I mean, he's a grown man. But OK, you consider your son your kid for the rest of your life. There is kind of like an attempt to normalize this, and it isn't normal.</s>DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. So, let's just rewind the facts here. I'm glad Angela raised the issue of the DNC consultant, right, of actually going to a foreign power, actual consultant on the campaign going to an actual --</s>TAPPER: She was a DNC consultant.</s>URBAN: So, the DNC was smart enough to have a cutout, OK? So, that's fine. So, they have a cutout, going, they have a cutout going to a foreign government, actual foreign government, OK, looking for dirt on the Trump campaign on Paul Manafort, OK? Someone who's coming down the pike. Amazingly, her stock goes up dramatically right after Paul Manafort's named the campaign chairman. In this instance, OK, I'm not saying the meeting was a great idea, Don Jr. said if he had to do it again, he wouldn't. But it was -- she's an alleged, alleged, has alleged contacts with the Russian government. I mean, you just heard Congressman Schiff saying I'm not going to tell you anything that's classified, and he's saying that she's apart of the Russian government. So, we know that's not true because if Congressman Schiff knew that for a fact, he wouldn't say it on national TV if he knew that for classified meeting. So, we heard from a B-list publicist an e-mail saying she's tied from the Russian government. So -- and Don Jr. wasn't part of the campaign. He's a family member.</s>RYE: No, he was an advisor to the campaign. He absolutely --</s>TAPPER: He was a surrogate.</s>URBAN: I was on the campaign at the time.</s>TAPPER: But let me -- can I say one thing, is it not significant that Ukraine is an ally of the United States and Russia is a geopolitical foe?</s>URBAN: Ukraine is an ally of the United States, but we're not an ally of the Trump campaign at that time or Paul Manafort.</s>TAPPER: Because he had done work in Ukraine.</s>URBAN: Right, absolutely.</s>TAPPER: Go ahead, Angela.</s>RYE: No, and I just think again -- I brought it up because it is outrageous, it is laughable that this is the defense used. Number one, it wasn't just Donald Trump Jr. in these meetings. It was Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort who, of course, was the campaign chairman. It also, the contact with the Ukraine and the DNC consultant was about Paul Manafort. It wasn't about impeding on and fudging with our democracy of the election.</s>URBAN: Sure it was. It was about knocking Paul Manafort out of election and participating, which they did. It was successful.</s>RYE: And here's the bottom line here, there has been a number of people who have suspected, right, collusion, and now you have something in black and white that was leaked, only because Donald Trump Jr. knew this story was coming out of the "New York Times". It's damning.</s>TAPPER: So, let many ask a question, because Trey Gowdy, who is a Republican congressman from South Carolina, he had a take on this that I want to play.</s>RYE: Yes.</s>REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The amnesia of people that are in the Trump orbit, someone close to the president needs to get everyone connected with that campaign in a room. And say, from the time you saw Dr. Zhivago until the moment you -- until the moment you drank vodka with a guy named Boris, you list every single one of those and we're going to turn them over to the special counsel because this drip, drip, drip is undermining the credibility of this administration.</s>TAPPER: That is a very conservative Republican from South Carolina.</s>URBAN: Listen, I don't agree with Congressman Gowdy one bit. I'm for getting every bit of that information, every bit of news you have and dumping it all, get it out. I'm not for -- I think it's a bad strategy, I don't think it's a strategy at all. I think it was an oversight on someone's SF86. They corrected it.</s>TAPPER: Security clearance form.</s>URBAN: They corrected it, and they're being truthful and moving forward.</s>RYE: But I think it's bigger than that, right? This is not about minimizing this. This is Trey Gowdy also who led the special committee on Benghazi saying this. And I think we have to acknowledge, it's not just about getting the information out, it's when the information comes out, us being able to say in a bipartisan manner, this information is problematic. And that is what a number of House and Senate Republicans are saying. And for whatever reason, Trump surrogates can not fix their mouth to say that it is in fact problematic.</s>URBAN: Which part is problematic, Angela? Which part? The part --</s>RYE: Taking the meeting. What's also in the substance of the e-mail, the fact -- do you want me to answer your question? Donald Trump Jr. saying, you know, this -- I love it, especially if it's later in the summer. All of that is highly problematic, it's not ethical, and it is borderline illegal. If there is in fact a conspiracy here, it's a conspiracy to commit -- or to violate federal election law. That's the problem.</s>URBAN: So you are jumping and making a lot of assumptions.</s>RYE: Not at all. It's on the paper.</s>URBAN: Conspiracy --</s>RYE: I said if it is --</s>URBAN: FEC violation. If I was 6'4" and handsome, i'd be a completely different person. So, if --</s>TAPPER: We find you very attractive, David.</s>URBAN: No, but you're assumptions are just huge.</s>TAPPER: No, my assumptions aren't -- no, but they're not assumptions.</s>URBAN: They are assumptions.</s>TAPPER: Let's look at the legality. Let's talk about the ethics -- was it unethical? Forget the illegality, because that's debatable.</s>URBAN: I don't know if it's unethical. It's obviously -- listen, it's all based -- no, because it's all based on your mens rea, right? What's going on in your mind. I don't know what Don Jr., what he read in the e-mail, what he thought about in the e-mail. Russia had nothing -- listen, at that time in the campaign, Russia was nowhere on anybody's --</s>TAPPER: Angela, last word.</s>ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, it's - Russia is now in our sights because of actions taken like this, and his</s>TAPPER: David and Angela, thanks, both of you. I appreciate it. He was the first living recipient of the nation's highest award for valor on the battlefield since Vietnam War, the incredibly inspiring reasons why this - reason why this hero is giving away his medal of honor. Stay with us.