The New York Times bombshell that Donald Trump Jr. told about the Russian efforts to influence the election and the subsequent email confirmation has the news media in a spin. And while it makes sense that notoriously left-leaning channels and publications are seizing on this horrifying news, we may have finally reached the point where conservative media outlets can no longer ignore the bad news.
Now, they have to acknowledge it, and also acknowledge how bad it looks. Notorious conservative media outlet National Review’s David French even wrote that this investigation is no longer a witch hunt:
“From the available evidence, it looks like Donald Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner (the latter two were forwarded the e-mail chain and attended the meeting) attempted to cooperate in what they were told was an official Russian government effort to “support” Donald Trump. The meeting became meaningless to them only after it was clear that the Russian lawyer couldn’t deliver the goods. In other words, this isn’t the smoking gun that proves actual “collusion” with Russia, but rather evidence that Trump Jr., Manafort, and Kushner tried to collude with Russia.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is a conservative journalist stating facts that up until this point they had refused to address. Turn on Fox News at any given time and they’re bad-mouthing Obamacare and accusing Ukraine of doing the same thing Russia did. And while some conservatives are stubbornly defending Donald Jr. and his dad, some are over it, like talk show host Steve Deace:
“It started with there’s no evidence of collusion. Then we moved on to collusion isn’t criminal. Since Trump Jr. is now showing us evidence of the collusion, next we’ll transition to who wouldn’t want oppo research on their opponent? Even if it was offered by a hostile foreign country run by the former head of the KGB, who I’m sure is completely trustworthy and has know [sic] ulterior motives in sowing further dissension within the country? In fact, many of us are already there.”
Or these Tweets:
I'm really bothered by some conservatives' embrace of a new standard under which 'if it's not a literal crime, it's NBD.' Really? 2/
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 11, 2017
Would we accept this from the other side? Oh, HRC may have lied about Benghazi, and Lois about IRS targeting & Obama about healthcare… 3/
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 11, 2017
Looks like even some conservative media outlets can call hypocrisy when they see it. Not enough of them, but it’s a start.
Featured image from The Yeshiva World.
