Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer blasted Republicans defending President Trump's eldest son on Tuesday, comparing Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer to attempting to receive stolen goods.
"They were saying for six months, we didn't do it, there's no evidence that we did it ... Now they're saying, yeah we did it, but it wasn't so bad and we were incompetent at it. That's not a very good defense," Krauthammer, a Fox News contributor, said on the network.
"If you get in a car to go to a certain place in the middle of the night to pick up stolen goods, and it turns out the stolen goods don't show up but the cops show up, I think you're going to have a very weak story saying 'I got swindled here,'" he said.
"Look, this is incompetence, they got swindled and he admits 'If I had known, I wouldn't have done this,'" Krauthammer added. "But to say 'I love it,' to be informed that the Russians are working on their behalf, contradicts six months of stories."
Krauthammer indicated that newly revealed correspondence showing Trump Jr. setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer changed his view of Trump's team amid probes into possible ties between his campaign and Russia.
"I defended them, because up until today there was no 'there' there," he said.
"Well now there is a 'there.'"
"The denial of collusion is very weak right now because it looks as if Don Jr. was receptive to receiving this information," he concluded.
On Tuesday, Trump Jr. released a series of emails between himself and publicist Rob Goldstone, who was offering to set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer in the hopes of obtaining damaging information about his father’s campaign rival, Hillary Clinton.
“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump,” Goldstone wrote.
“If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer," Trump Jr. replied.
President Trump issued a brief statement defending his eldest son through White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday.
“My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency,” Trump said in the statement delivered to reporters during an off-camera briefing