Fox's Andrew McCarthy: Trump's lies about business dealings in Russia don't matter because they are not “legally actionable”

McCarthy: “Turns out they had more to do with Russia than they said. But it doesn't mean that what they had to do with Russia was a crime.”

From the November 30 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

Video file

ANDREW MCCARTHY (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): The only thing that changes, Brian, really, is political. It's not legal. During the campaign, the Trump campaign conveyed the message that the president -- the now-president had nothing to do with Russia. No deals, no negotiations, and it turns out that they had a major deal and big negotiations. But none of that is a lie to anything -- in the sense of anything that's legally actionable. And none of it shows involvement in Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Cohen talks about higher contacts with -- we think it's Felix Sater, his number two. Number one is Donald Trump. We think it's Felix Sater because he's been the person everyone understands was the connector. So, it looks like they had higher up and more talks. But it doesn't show anything. You have a businessman looking to do an international business deal with a country that might have been amenable to that. However, that country we were having a fallout with and the president's been speaking kindly about, which had a lot of people scratching their head. That plays into it, correct? 

MCCARTHY: Yeah. That's exactly right. I mean, if they had been forthright about what the nature of the business was, what probably would have happened in the campaign is that would have shed more attention on, you know, the Russian contacts with the Clinton Foundation and the payments that went to Clinton people from Russia, and it probably would have been a big hullabaloo for about a week and we would've moved on to something else. But, you know, the way things stand now, what you have is the campaign was saying, “We have nothing to do with Russia.” Turns out they had more to do with Russia than they said. But it doesn't mean that what they had to do with Russia was a crime, and that's the bait and switch game that's gone on here from the beginning. This investigation was supposed to be about Trump's complicity in Putin's hacking of the Democratic email accounts, and, since they had not been able to prove that, which would actually be a crime, what they've done is, they've shifted to any kind of collusive activity. Any kind of concerted arrangements between Russia and Trump. So, then, the media tells everybody, Mueller is investigating Trump collusion with Russia, and in connection with that investigation, a number of Trump associates have pled guilty, and a number of Russians have been indicted. And what they don't tell you is the Trump people who've pled guilty, that doesn't have anything to do with Russia's interference in the election. And the indictments against the Russians don't have anything to do with the Trump campaign.

Previously:

Fox's Andrew McCarthy: “I don't think that it's bad if campaigns are turning to foreign governments for dirt”

Fox & Friends guest claims the FBI started Trump campaign probe without “evidence that anyone had actually committed a crime”

Fox contributor: It doesn't matter if Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting because “his only concern is impeachment”