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.”

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 bernstein@forward.com or on Twitter ,@__jbernstein

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