AS I WAS SAYING, THEY AREN'T EVEN BOTHERING WITH "ALTERNATIVE FACTS" NOW

I told you yesterday that Donald Trump and his enablers have begun to move beyond the notion of alternative facts -- they now seem willing to acknowledge the same facts we do, even the ones we think are obviously damning, but they treat those facts as if they prove innocence.

It's happening again today. The New York Times had a story in the works about emails exchanged by Donald Trump Jr. and his pal Rob Goldstone, who was setting up a meeting between Junior and a lawyer connected to the Russian government, and Junior tried to preempt the story by releasing the emails himself. The emails, as the Times notes, are pretty much a smoking gun:

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

If the future president’s elder son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material — or the notion that it was part of a continuing effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign — he gave no indication.

He replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.”

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would most likely bring along “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, now one of the president’s closest White House advisers.

But Junior clearly believes he's exonerated himself -- hey, he released the emails himself, therefore nothing in them could possibly incriminate him. Gateway Pundit, at least, seems to agree: Its headline for the story is "BOOM! Donald Trump Jr. Beats #FakeNews and Releases Entire Email Chain on Meeting Russian Lawyer."

As the facts get worse and worse for Trump and Co., they're just going to keep admitting to what's revealed, while insisting that there's nothing untoward going on. And why not? The worst that can happen to Team Trump is what's happening now. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are expressing concern. Orrin Hatch is saying, “I don’t think this is relevant to the Trump administration.” The same 36 to 42 percent of America that has backed Trump since the spring still backs him. Repeat, ad infinitum.