EVERY CAPO FOR HIMSELF:

White House aides feel blindsided by the bombshell revelations around Donald Trump Jr.'s campaign meeting with a Russian lawyer, while the president is using his relatively light schedule to watch TV and fume about the latest scandal, according to interviews with half a dozen White House officials and advisers.

Unlike prior Russia-related controversies, the White House is not minimizing the political ramifications of Trump's eldest son's decision to meet with the Kremlin-linked lawyer after being offered information that he was told would "incriminate" Hillary Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

But top West Wing aides are exasperated by their limited ability to steer the damage control and the risk that more damaging news has yet to emerge.

One Trump adviser said the White House was "essentially helpless" because the conduct happened during an "anything goes" campaign that had few rules. [...]

There's also tension inside the White House as Vice President Mike Pence's communications team issued its own statement, appearing to distance Pence from the president. Some West Wing aides felt particularly bruised by the line that he's "not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories about the time before he joined the ticket," seeing it as an admission of guilt on the part of the campaign, according to a White House official.

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