Gorka Spars CNN, MSNBC Over Trump Jr. Meeting With Russian Lawyer

White House deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka fiercely argued with morning show hosts on CNN and MSNBC — both networks President Donald Trump and the White House have accused of reporting "fake news" — about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney.

Gorka, appearing on CNN's "New Day," took a shot at the network's ratings after show host Alisyn Camerota asked him if it was a good idea for Trump Jr. to take the meeting, and later in the morning sparred with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle when she asked him for comment on the meeting and about an interview NBC held earlier in the morning with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.

On both networks, Gorka pushed hard to shift the topic to the Democratic National Committee and its party's nominee, Hillary Clinton.

"Was it a good idea for the DNC to send its operatives to the Ukrainian Embassy?" Gorka asked Camerota. "The amount of time you spend in desperation on a topic that has plummeted you to 13th place in viewership ranking across America — more people watch Nick at Night cartoons than CNN today."

Camerota insisted the network's ratings were fine, but Gorka claimed that the cartoon shows are "11" in viewership because "more people are interested in cartoons!"

He also brought up Clinton, asking Camerota about "individuals who got half a million dollars to give speeches when their wife was running for president?"

On MSNBC, Gorka insisted to Ruhle that Trump Jr.'s statements on his meetings with the Russian lawyer stand for themselves, as Veselnitskaya had no connection with the Russian government and had requested a meeting under "false pretenses."

"Once the discussion began and this individual started to talk incoherently, the topic changed to the issue of Russian adoptions, which was a very hot item under the Obama administration, and at that point the meeting ended," he said.

"I think the very important thing is not just the statements from Mr. Trump Jr., but the fact that after that meeting, there was no other connection, no phone calls, no further meetings because this individual did not meet in good faith. Donald Trump Jr. is not part of the administration and so this is a massive nothing burger."

Gorka told Ruhle he never met the attorney, and once again brought up the DNC's meetings at the Ukraine embassy "to coordinate oppositional research and attack against our campaign. That's a story."

He also argued that speaking fees former President Bill Clinton received from the Russian government were illegal and "pay-for-play" while his wife was "in control of the sale of 20 percent of America's uranium to Russia."

Meanwhile, the Trump Jr. meeting was conducted with a person who was "not acting in good faith," Gorka told Ruhle, but meeting with her was "standard political practice."

"It is not appropriate to do that with a foreign government," Ruhle argued. "And if these meetings were standard practice, why wouldn't Don share that information?"

Gorka also argued that in the first 125 days of Trump's presidency, there have been "126 leaks of national security information to the media and "that's illegal. That's felonious . . . now that's a story. "

He said the "fake news media, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times" has not found a "felonious piece of evidence," but accused Ruhle of being in possession of felonious information and not reporting to authorities where she had gotten it.

"You know more than we do inside the White House as to who's doing the leaking. Maybe you should talk to the authorities if you're in possession of felonious activity and leaking information," he told Ruhle.

Later in the interview, Gorka insisted that Trump is "crushing it" when it comes to his leadership.

"I think in the last 25 weeks, you've seen that leadership, from the southern border to NATO, to Warsaw, to the economy, to the stock market, we're crushing it, and he can do that from anywhere."

When Ruhle told him that a president can't "crush" the stock market, he retorted that he meant Trump is winning.

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