President Donald Trump defended his son, Donald Jr., again over the controversial meeting he held with a Russian attorney during the campaign last year, calling him a "great young man" and saying that "most people would have taken that meeting."
Trump Jr. has drawn fire for the meeting, as well as an email chain in which he was promised damaging information from a Russian government source about his father's campaign rival, Hillary Clinton. In response, Trump Jr. wrote, "I love it," but recently said that nothing came out of the meeting. He also denied the lawyer worked for the Russian government.
"As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer. Not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly. Very fast," Trump said during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron while in Paris.
"I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research, or even research into your opponent," Trump said.
Prior to that comment, Trump and Macron spent much of the joint press conference talking about their mutual respect while Trump is in the French capital for Bastille Day, the country's national holiday on July 14, and to commemorate the U.S. engagement alongside French troops during World War I.
President Donald Trump praised the "very good" and "long" relationship between the U.S. and France during his visit to Paris today.
"France is America's first and oldest ally, a lot of people don't know that," Trump said.
"Ever since Gen. Lafayette joined the American fight for Independence, our fates and fortunes have been tied unequivocally together. It was a long time ago, but we are together. And I think together perhaps more so than ever. The relationship is very good," he said.
The Trumps and the Macrons visited Les Invalides, the site of Napoleon's tomb and a military museum.
The world leaders then had a bilateral meeting before making their public comments at the news conference.
During his remarks, Macron touched on a number of topics that the pair discussed, talking about their shared interests relating to Iraq and Syria as well as fair trade. He acknowledged the different stances that the two leaders take regarding climate change but said that they were still able to discuss the topic.
"We have expressed them on a number of occasions but I in it is important that we can continue to talk about it. I very much respect the decision taken by president Trump," Macron said, according to a translation of his remarks, which were in French.
Macron later said that he and Trump have spoken about the American leader's views against the Paris agreement but said that their disagreement should not impact the other subject areas.
Trump said that "I mean, something could happen with respect to the Paris accord. We'll see what happens. But we will talk about that over the coming period of time. And if it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't, that will be okay, too."
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2ves7PT
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