The Trump Campaign met with russians with the specific goal of hurting Hillary Clintons campaign. Now, donald trump jr. Was joined by Paul Manafort who was then Trumps Campaign manager and Jared Kushner and top adviser in that meeting. Its also a continuing pattern that weve seen since the election of Trump Campaign and Trump Administration officials who have conveniently forgotten meetings with russians only when they are then presented with evidence they have to recant and acknowledge those kinds of meetings. So what pattern is warner talking about . Well, perhaps this. Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six but seven Trump Associates. All of whom did not reveal meetings they had with russians until the meetings were reported in the media. Score one, for leakers. Donald trump jr. Met with Natalia Veselnitskaya and he said that the meeting was about 20 to 30 minutes and about a banned program for americans who wanted to adopt russian children. A day later, though, trump jr. Changed his story admitting that the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the Democratic National committee and supporting miss clinton. Now, thats a big admission, right, admitting that she said she had dirt and they wanted to hear the dirt and yet trump jr. Stands by this. He says he took the meeting without even knowing the name of the person with whom he was to meet. This is the at that time, the nominee of the president for the president of the United States, his son and Campaign Manager and soninlaw were taking a meeting with someone who had dirt on the clintons and they didnt even know her name . Consider the context. Donald trump had clinched the number of delegates he needed at this time. So why would three of his closest advisers agree to do this, meet with an individual with supposedly damning information about Hillary Clinton and why would they spend half an hour talking to her then about Something Else . These explanations dont make sense and the meeting itself calls into questions these statements made by the president and the vice president. Did any adviser or anybody in the Trump Campaign have any contact with the russians who were trying to meddle in the election . Well, of course not. I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy. I have nothing to do with russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. Manu raju begins our coverage outfront on capitol hill. You asked senator warner about his requests that he wants to speak with donald trump jr. What more did he tell you . Reporter he wants to hear from donald trump jr. In the classified session before the Senate Intelligence committee saying absolutely does he want to talk to donald trump jr. This comes when the Intelligence Committee is now moving into a new phase of the investigation, erin, talking to Trump Officials, Trump Campaign officials who may have knowledge about these meetings that occurred between russian officials and Trump Associates during the campaign season. Now, one question that mark warner has for some of these Trump Campaign associates is why didnt they come clean earlier . This is what he said. For a campaign and now a president who continues to say theres no there there, virtually every week or two theres more stories of meetings, undisclosed meetings with russian officials that beg the question if theres no there there, why arent more of these people coming clean on a more regular fashion . Reporter public evidence of any effort between Trump Associates and Campaign Officials and russian officials to coordinate about the campaign to go after Hillary Clinton but he did not say if its the first private evidence that he has seen. Ive asked him that directly. He said he would not comment on that. Other republicans, however, are not going as far as mark warner, to richard burr, the republican chair of the Committee Said he doesnt want to comment on don jr. Because he may come before the committee. John cornyn, the republican whip who sits on the committee, says hes willing to talk to don jr. But doesnt see the evidence yet that mark warner does. Clearly a new focus of the investigation looking into possible areas of coordinations and discussions that may have occurred between Trump Officials and russian officials during the campaign season. And this could be very crucial in terms of that possible connection. Thank you, manu. Jeff zeleny is at the white house. Jeff, the white house is trying to distance themselves, just as the president , that is, from this particular meeting with three of the people closest to him were all in attendance. They are just saying he just found out about it now even though, muof course, it happene in trump tower. Reporter they say the president just learned about this reading the news reports flying back from germany when that story first broke in the New York Times on a saturday afternoon. The issue here, though, is the president has said repeatedly that he has no knowledge of any meetings with the russian officials. He said in a press conference after his election, he said at several other times, the question, though, is trump tower is a fairly small place. The Trump Campaign was much, much smaller than most campaigns. We know that donald trump was in new york city that day. He was meeting with republican officials or republican donors and this was the same week that the president ial campaign basically ended. The california primary was earlier that week. This was the day after that his top rival when Hillary Clinton accepted her nomination as well. He may not have known about it, the white house is saying, look, he did not have any idea that the meeting was happening there but this for the first time is a suggestion that there was a meeting during the campaign. And erin, its causing some concernation here at the white house because they thought they had turned the corner and they could focus on their agenda. That is not what is happening. Again, these questions are dominating the white house. The question is, has anyone called for a full accounting of all of the meetings. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she did not know if anyone had asked for more meetings besides this one. Jeff zeleny, thank you. It depends on what investigators know but everybody should have come forward and volunteered all of the meetings that they had or were a part of so this information wouldnt be coming via leaks to the press which could make it seem more sinister. Outfront, ron wyden, a member of the Intelligence Committee. Senator, let me ask you, this meeting between donald trump jr. , Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner and a russian lawyer, what do you make of it . We dont know, erin, what was said at the meeting. But given donald trump jr. s own admissions, this was an attempt at collusion so this is going to be very important to get to the bottom of and clearly we have to talk to all of the parties but while there is some discussion about whether he knew the name of the particular individual, this was a russian trying to help donald trump get elected. So let me ask you about this issue of collusion. You raised that word. The Deputy White House press secretary sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about whether this was collusion. Heres how she answered that question. I would certainly say don jr. Did not collude with anybody to influence the election. Do you believe her . Again, we dont know what was said. But when you hear somebodys own words, that was an admission that he was getting together with somebody who was going to get him information of value, a russian giving him information of value that would help donald trump get elected. Now, hes saying that the meeting was 20 to 30 minutes. And that she started it off with a few vague items that did not deliver upon the promise of delivering anything on Hillary Clinton and then moved to talk about an adoption bill for russians. Does it make sense to you that a meeting that had a few vague things about Hillary Clinton then went on for 20 to 30 minutes with a campaign chairman, soninlaw and the son of what at that point was known to be the upcoming republican nominee for president . My first reaction, erin, weve already heard two versions of what happened. Lets see if we hear a third version. It doesnt make any sense to me what youve described. So don jr. Has been tweeting in response to critics today and says obviously im the first person on a campaign to ever take a hearing to hear a meeting about an opponent but had to listen. Does he have a point here . Campaigns do Opposition Research all the time. Could this just fall into that category . There is a really big difference here between a normal campaign and talking with a foreign hostile power who is trying to influence an american election. This is not about getting information from a Previous City Council race where somebody cast a vote and it wasnt recorded or videotaped. This is about somebody who is involved with the russians. Weve heard about potential ways in which this meeting was arranged. The more you learn about this, the more trouble you get. Do you believe that this lawyer was endorsed by directly connected to the kremlin . There certainly cant be any judgments made about that this evening but certainly the facts here continue to pile up and, you know, we have listened to one official in this administration after another have to change their story and this looks like one of the worst cases. So a washington, d. C. , lawyer confirmed late today, senator, that hes representing don jr. On all things russian related. Donald trump jr. Has received no requests of any kind from a government agency. Those are his words. Is it true that your committee, after months of investigating, hasnt until tonight at least since mark warner said that he wanted to hear from don jr. , requested such a meeting . Youre not allowed to talk about Committee Deliberations but to me what is nonnegotiable here is weve got to talk to all of the parties and find out what was said. So before we go, i want to ask you about health care. John mccain said the proposal is, quote, probably going to be dead. Mitch mcconnell hasnt given up. Senator cornyn says he wants a vote next week. Any chance that this passes, from where you stand . I hope not. I had eight town Hall Meetings in oregon, three in counties won by Hillary Clinton and five won by donald trump. I hope we can kill this proposal and then come back and work together. Ive got ideas that i think would be attractive to both sides. Senator wyden, thank you. Thank you. Up next, i asked Paul Manafort about the possibility that russians were trying to help the campaign. And heres part of how he answered my question. I dont know anything about what you just said. You may know it. If you do, you ought to expose it. To say you know, i dont even know what youre talking about. Its crazy. Its crazy. That was weeks after he met with that russian lawyer. Much more on what he said about russias meddling in the election. Plus, donald trump ridiculed after abandoning the idea, is it now back on the table tonight . And jeanne moos with a tale of two hats and two president s. When youre close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment . If you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. Taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. With taltz, up to 90 of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. In fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. Do not use if you are allergic to taltz. 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It was not about collusion. Thats the premise of the question, as to whether or not the campaign colluded with russia. Thats the premise of the entire scope of your questioning and the point weve tried to makeover and over again and will continue to make is that there wasnt. But heres the reality. The questions were not always about collusion. A lot of them were just about whether there were meetings. Now, weeks after trump jr. And Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner attended that meeting with the russian lawyer, we didnt know about the meeting at the time but weeks after that i actually interviewed Paul Manafort. Let me play you an exchange. Russian hackers broke into dnc servers. We know that. Vladimir putin and donald trump have said very nice things about each other. Why is it so farfetched to blame the russians and say that the motive was to help you . Its just absurd. Donald trump is running for president of the United States. Hes talking about the failed leadership of the Obama Administration. To say you know, i dont know what youre talking about. Its crazy. The fact that were having this conversation is the wrong conversation. The conversation we should be having is what does russia have from Hillary Clintons server. Thats the bigger issue. Mark preston is outfront, senior political analyst, assistant secretary for dhs and paul callan. I asked paul why its so convenient to blame the russians and say the motive is to help you after he met with the russian lawyer who proposed to help them and he said its absurd. I dont know anything you just said. If you do, you ought to expose it. Its crazy. Look, he knew about the meeting. I didnt at the time. No one else did but he sure knew, mark. He was almost tempting you or teasing you to say do you know what is going on right now and thinking it would never be expos exposed but this is a running theme of advisers of President Trump in their memory. We saw attorney general Jeff Sessions who failed to disclose two meetings with the Russian Ambassador kislyak and saw Jared Kushner on his top secret security clearances forget to put in his meetings with kislyak and a russian banker as well as this meeting were discussing right now. We saw Michael Flynn be very cagey about his meetings as well with russian officials as well as ambassador kislyak. They are saying that they had damaging information on Hillary Clinton and illegal donations or something from the russians but that she didnt bring the goods and then proceeded to talk about adoptions for 20 to 30minute meeting for the most important people in Donald Trumps orbit. Do you buy that . Well, no. In a sense that donald trump jr. s story has changed in 24 hours, the only reason we believed that information wasnt past was because of donald trump jr. s statements. So the lines about the meetings bother me a lot less than the taking of the meetings. So the idea everyone talks about chess in politics. Lets tal