BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Another revelation over the weekend from, get this, The New York Times who, first off, talk about a Donald Trump Jr. meeting that was -- that on his invitation Paul Manafort would also attend along with Jared Kushner with a Russian.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): So that's the New York Times headline. “Trump's son met with Russian lawyer after being promised damaging information on Clinton.” Well, because that was out there, then Donald Trump Jr. put out the statement where he explained what happened. He said, I had a friend, somebody I met during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, and they said, “Hey, there's somebody who has some information, might be helpful to the campaign,” brought the person in, didn't know the name ahead of time. Then, as it is revealed, she says -- this is the Russian lawyer -- says,
“I've got evidence that apparently Hillary Clinton is getting -- there's a connection where the DNC is getting money from the Russian government and they are helping Hillary.” But in the end it was so vague and so nondescript, he realized she wasn't going anywhere with that and instead started talking about Russian adoption.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): So he said he realized quickly in that meeting with her, “This is how she lured me into a meeting to talk about --”
DOOCY: Bait and switch.
EARHARDT: Right, and she really wanted to talk about adoption. But here’s the argument -- nothing came out of that meeting, he didn’t learn anything. But what’s interesting is that, if you have someone – if you’re running for some political campaign, and then you find out that they have information about your opponent, wouldn’t you meet with them?
[...]
DOOCY: Ultimately what's curious about the whole thing is the acquaintance who had set it up, somebody from the Miss Universe pageant in 2013, at the end of the meeting apologized. “I'm sorry that woman took up your time.” And there were no further details, no follow up. Didn't -- nobody knew about it until somebody in the deep state leaked these details to The New York Times.
KILMEADE: And the whole thing is, if you disclose it right away, it's no problem. The fact that this was found out by a leak and an investigative reporter was the issue which forced Donald Trump Jr. to clarify over the weekend.
EARHARDT: But didn't Manafort -- I think Manafort and Jared Kushner did disclose they had that meeting.
DOOCY: He did. Right. And Don Jr. is not in government.
