--- title: Hillary Clinton Slams Donald Trump Jr.'s Russia Meeting description: Hillary Clinton slammed Donald Trump Jr.'s explanation of why he met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign. canonical: https://time.com/4939242/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-jr-what-happened/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-13T14:57:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:24:08.324Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'It's Another Absurd Lie.' Hillary Clinton Slams Trump Jr.'s Russia Meeting Explanation og:description: "It’s another absurd lie to cover up what really was going on" og:url: https://time.com/4939242/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-jr-what-happened/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt918ab6287ad0680a/6988dd987cdbac22b6d59fd3/gettyimages-693601452.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 2017 Stephan Weiss Apple Awards og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'It's Another Absurd Lie.' Hillary Clinton Slams Trump Jr.'s Russia Meeting Explanation twitter:description: "It’s another absurd lie to cover up what really was going on" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt918ab6287ad0680a/6988dd987cdbac22b6d59fd3/gettyimages-693601452.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'It's Another Absurd Lie.' 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 13, 2017 2:57 PM UTC  Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the 2017 Stephan Weiss Apple Awards on June 7, 2017 in New York City. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the 2017 Stephan Weiss Apple Awards on June 7, 2017 in New York City. Monica Schipper—Getty Images for Urban Zen Found  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 13, 2017 2:57 PM UTC [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4937292/hillary-clinton-what-happened-book-interviews/) on Wednesday slammed Donald Trump Jr.’s explanation of why he met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign. In his [testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee](http://time.com/4933068/donald-trump-jr-senate-russia-clinton-collusion/) last week, Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s son, denied any collusion with Russia and said he took the meeting to learn more about [Clinton’s “fitness” for office](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/politics/trump-russia-investigation.html?mcubz=1&%5Fr=0). “It’s ridiculous,” Clinton [told the TODAY Show](https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/907941456765218816) on Wednesday, when asked about Trump Jr.’s explanation. “It’s another absurd lie to cover up what really was going on, which I hope we finally uncover and understand.” Asked how pained she was after the election, Clinton said it exceeded a scale of 1 to 10\. “Well it’s gone down the scale,” she said. “It was probably 25 when the election ended in such a surprising and, for me, distressing way.” In her new book, [_What Happened_](http://time.com/4937416/hillary-clinton-what-happened-books/)_,_ Clinton analyzes the factors that she believes led to the outcome of the election, including Russian interference. “If I had been elected and this had come to light — if I had known once I walked into that Oval Office what we now know, I would have stopped at nothing to make sure this never happened again to anybody,” she told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer on Wednesday. Clinton mentioned Lauer in the book, criticizing him for focusing on her use of a private email server during NBC’s “Commander in Chief forum” in September 2016. “Trump should have reported \[Lauer’s\] performance as an in-kind contribution. Later, there were rumors ginned up by fake news reports that I was so mad at him I stormed off stage, threw a tantrum, and shattered a water glass. While I didn’t do any of that, I can’t say I didn’t fantasize about shaking some sense into Lauer while I was out there,” she wrote, [according to Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/12/hillary-clinton-book-best-passages-and-quotes-242608). Lauer raised the criticism during Wednesday’s TODAY show interview. “I personally believe that our press — which is such an essential part of our country, our democracy — has to take some hard look at how it covered what was the first reality TV candidate, and I understand how difficult that was,” [Clinton said](https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/907940680055574528). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4939242/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-jr-what-happened/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4939242/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-jr-what-happened/"},"headline":"'It's Another Absurd Lie.' 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