The point to remember--and many may not realize this--but the emails were completely wrong regarding the Russian government connection. It was a ruse, demonstrated by the fact that there is no "Crown prosecutor" in Russia. Don Jr.'s acquaintance was fed a ruse, which he passed on. So this is by its nature no more evidence of collusion than a Bullwinkle cartoon of Boris and Natasha walking into Trump Tower. A legitimate issue exists regarding the thinking of Don Jr, et al, on this, but as the full substance regarding the emails and event spreads over the next couple of days, anyone saying otherwise will be either ignorant or lying.
One question some have raised is why this is stretching out so much.
Trey Gowdy, for instance, has suggested that the campaign staff should
be locked in a room to told, "Okay, from the time you saw 'Dr. Zhivago,'
to the time you had vodka with a guy named Boris, lay out every
connection whatsoever you've had with Russia." One of the concerns I
had during the campaign was the Trump team suffered a Tea Party-type
lack of political understanding and an almost redneck hick-like lack of
analysis skills when it comes to matters of social science. They are
smart people, but like so many conservative-types, lack the benefit of
the liberal arts-type education that is necessary for political action.
Given that Trump Jr. is a businessman, which by nature means he more
focused on the actual and direct (as opposed to the theoretical or
cross-referenced), it is quite believable that he (and others) would
brainfart on all of this and not have this event register. Since the
"Russia-Russia-Russia!" craze was not going, it didn't register then.
Since it was a complete case of nonsense, he put it out of his mind.
And since his mind is trained toward business, not more theoretical
things--and since conservative-types tend to be introspective by nature
anyway--it would have been, unfortunately, all too easy for this meeting
not to register later as an issue to mention.
So, as I said, it was total naiveté.
EDIT: One has to wonder, though, if this meeting might be the genesis of much of the rumoring about a collusion. "The walls have ears." Whispers and hints of this may well have leaked out and taken on lives of their own. Foreign agencies may well have heard of it, causing "chatter" in our communications intercepts of their conversations. Add in a few odd facts and the direction of the Obama people to politically weaponize intelligence, and this would fit.
WITH ADDENDUM:
So, as I said, it was total naiveté.
EDIT: One has to wonder, though, if this meeting might be the genesis of much of the rumoring about a collusion. "The walls have ears." Whispers and hints of this may well have leaked out and taken on lives of their own. Foreign agencies may well have heard of it, causing "chatter" in our communications intercepts of their conversations. Add in a few odd facts and the direction of the Obama people to politically weaponize intelligence, and this would fit.
WITH ADDENDUM:
