First, the facts, based on what we know right now.

It has been reported that one of President Donald Trump's sons, Donald Trump Jr., received an email in June of 2016 from British music publicist Rob Goldstone, who represented a Russian pop star with ties to the elder Trump. Goldstone offered Trump Jr. information that would supposedly incriminate then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and thus would give Donald Trump a competitive advantage in an election against her.

Now, it has been widely known within the United States intelligence community that Russia's presence was felt in the 2016 election. Four major US intelligence agencies: the CIA, NSA, FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, have all stated with high confidence that Russian spies attempted to influence the election on the orders of Vladimir Putin. So it's not surprising to see that there has been another revelation of Russian meddling. But there is another element to this specific situation that makes things trickier.

Notice how I said that the Russian meddling in this instance involved Donald Trump Jr., Trump's eldest son. And it's not as if Trump Jr. ignored such an email; in fact, he responded to Goldstone's email quite enthusiastically, saying that he "loved it" (referring to potential dirt on Clinton) and wanted to continue talking to Goldstone about it in the near future. The email exchanges eventually led to a meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who allegedly had the "dirt" on Clinton, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

There are still several unanswered questions regarding this situation. We cannot say with absolute certainty that Donald Trump or members of his inner-circle cooperated with Russian officials in influencing the election, but what went on in that meeting? Did Trump Jr. receive any information regarding potential collusion? Did this meeting have any true effect on the outcome of the election? Hopefully, these questions will be definitively answered at some point.

As of right now, this situation is only adding onto a big string of problems for the current administration. The Russian meddling had already been a central focus in Washington for months, but the Trump Jr. scandal is growing it to crazy levels. The firing of former FBI director James Comey is still a looming cloud that is sure to be investigated further. There seems to be no end in sight for the controversies that are plaguing this country, but "plaguing" may be an understatement.

The duty of the federal government is to serve the people that put officials there in the first place, and elected officials cannot perform their duties with so many important external problems. With the major hearing that has already taken place surrounding Comey and potential future hearings about the Trump Jr. scandal, there is no way or time for anyone to take a better look at reforming health care (which has been laughable), focusing on taxes or combating climate change. It is unfortunate that our current administration continues to mire in controversies that are taking time away from focusing on how to improve the country.

The only thing I hear about politics these days is scandal and a government that doesn't know how to function. I can only hope that we get out of this soon one day, but I fear that such a day will not come soon enough. How can we build for the future if we are stuck searching for answers left in the past?