Sen. Angus King says the 2016 Trump Tower meeting "was a really serious lapse in judgement": "I don't usually agree with Steve Bannon, but the idea that they should have immediately called the FBI … is absolutely accurate" https://t.co/CNroiuYgkz
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 4, 2018
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said on Thursday he agreed with recent comments from former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon saying Donald Trump Jr. should have reached out to the FBI after the meeting with the Russian lawyer was proposed to him in 2016.
“I don’t usually agree with Steve Bannon, but the idea that they should have immediately called the FBI is absolutely accurate,” King told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.”
“You clearly can say it was a serious mistake, a serious lack of judgment,” he said, referring to the meeting.
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King’s comments come after Bannon was quoted in author Michael Wolff’s new book documenting the Trump White House, as saying Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer in exchange for negative information on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was “treasonous.”
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately,” Bannon said in the book.
Reports last year revealed that Trump Jr., the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower during the summer of 2016.
The meeting has since been the subject of congressional probes into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia’s election interference.
Trump Jr. responded to Bannon’s comments on Wednesday in a tweet, ripping his endorsement of Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race.
The president also issued a statement slamming his former chief strategist.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,” Trump said. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”