Aside from a single Donald Trump tweet, the White House has been radio silent on the Michael Cohen bombshell that the president gave personal approval to the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russia in 2016.
According to NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell, Trump and other White House staff have refused to publicly address the growing questions about what the president knew and when he knew it regarding his campaign’s contacts with Russian officials.
“When it comes to the White House, they are not speaking about this,” O’Donnell reported.
More from MSNBC:
Trump has refused to answer on-camera questions about the bombshell Trump Tower revelation. Today, the president is golfing. #ctl #p2 #Trump #Russia pic.twitter.com/c2hQ1KLEiI
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) July 28, 2018
When MSNBC’s Alex Witt pointed out that the network has “identified at least ten different ways … in which the president has refused to answer questions” on Cohen, O’Donnell reported:
White House officials are directing us to the president’s outside counsel, saying any questions that relate to that, look to someone like Rudy Giuliani – and we have. We’ve seen how Rudy Giuliani has gone from praising Michael Cohen as a trusted ally of the president, an employee and a confidant over a period of years to now saying that he is untrustworthy and has been lying, in fact, lying all of his life is one of the quotes attributed to Rudy Giuliani which then certainly begs the question why would the president have relied so heavily on someone they now claim to be a liar. When it comes to the White House, they are not speaking about this. The president is on the record in a few instances over the last year saying he knew nothing about it. Now that the information has come forward that Cohen would be willing to say to authorities that he has belief that President Trump, then-candidate trump, was informed in advance of the meeting with Russian individuals who came to Trump Tower. So at this point, it makes it, the prime question you want to ask the president, there’s this disparity. Where is the truth? So, we’ve counted a number of instances where the president has been in the company of reporters. You’ve seen some of them play out on TV. I asked questions at the airport yesterday, for example when I was playing the pool reporter acting on behalf of all of the networks. Earlier in the week, some of our other colleagues did as well and the president has declined to answer those.
Meanwhile, the president is golfing
Trump has been strangely silent today. Instead of participating in his regularly scheduled Saturday morning meltdown, he has opted to keep his head buried in a sand trap.
As MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin pointed out, Trump is golfing at one of his properties for the 133rd day since taking office.
Trump starts his day at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ.
This is Trump’s 176th day at a Trump property as president and his 133rd day at a Trump golf club as president.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 28, 2018
This radio silence suggests that Trump is privately panicking. He knows that if Michael Cohen’s assertion can be corroborated by witnesses, then his situation will become even more tenuous.
As counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance also pointed out today, the details of the Trump Tower meeting are likely to be exposed, and that will bring a bundle of more trouble to the White House doorstep.
Ultimately, if the president is afraid of journalists’ questions about these bombshell allegations, then he’ll fold like a cheap tent when he has to answer to special counsel Robert Mueller.
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