In private, sources inside the White House aren't even pretending it's ok.

• They know the Donald Trump Jr. emails that led to his Russia meeting are a terrible story, and mostly they're scrambling to find ways to deflect it and to turn this back against Hillary Clinton or the media.
• One line that's been thrown around internally is that this is just normal campaign opposition research, the kind that gets thrown around in a dirty hard campaign, especially one against the Clintons (Don Jr. has already used this line.)
• It's unclear, though, whether the White House or the legal team surrounding it — which has followed a Hannity-first comms strategy, ignoring mainstream media and preaching entirely to the base — have any good ideas to get out of this pickle.