If Jeff Sessions is the AG 24 hours from now, understand — Trump WH is fine with being lying, lawless & in bed with Russian intelligence.
— John Schindler (@20committee) March 2, 2017
McConnell and Ryan have received extensive intelligence briefings.
But they put their obedience to Trump ahead of their duty to country.
— Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) March 2, 2017
"The FBI’s role in the investigation into Mr. Sessions’ conversations left the agency 'wringing its hands'" https://t.co/rAA6pX34Zf
— Stefan Becket (@becket) March 2, 2017
#EvenTheNotLiberal Wall Street Journal:
U.S. investigators have examined contacts Attorney General Jeff Sessions had with Russian officials during the time he was advising Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.
The outcome of the inquiry, and whether it is ongoing, wasn’t clear, these people said. The contacts were being examined as part of a wide-ranging U.S. counterintelligence investigation into possible communications between members of Mr. Trump’s campaign team and Russian operatives, they said…
During his confirmation hearing for attorney general in January, Mr. Sessions, a Republican senator from Alabama, testified under oath that he had no contact with Russian officials as a campaign surrogate and never discussed the 2016 election with Russian officials.
But Mr. Sessions spoke with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak, while the Republican National Convention was under way in Cleveland last summer, according to his spokeswoman, Sarah Flores. He also spoke with Mr. Kislyak on another occasion last year, in a meeting in his Senate office, she said, clarifying that the meeting was in person and not on the phone as she had initially said…
The focus of the U.S. counterintelligence investigation has been on communications between Trump campaign officials and Russia. The inquiry involving Mr. Sessions is examining his contacts while serving as Mr. Trump’s foreign-policy adviser in the spring and summer of 2016, one person familiar with the matter said.
The investigation is being pursued by the FBI, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and Treasury Department, officials have said. Counterintelligence probes seldom lead to public accusations or criminal charges.
However, the probe, if ongoing, could create a highly unusual and sensitive political dynamic given that the FBI is part of the Justice Department that Mr. Sessions, as attorney general, now leads. Mr. Sessions has only been in office for under a month and the investigation began before he was nominated and approved by the Senate…
As a senator, Mr. Sessions was a sharp critic of Russia. He supported kicking the country out of the Group of Eight summit and called for sanctions against Moscow for its 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
“I believe a systematic effort should be undertaken so that Russia feels pain for this,” Mr. Sessions said at the time.
But his rhetoric softened after he endorsed Mr. Trump, and he advocated better relations with Russia.
Mr. Sessions joined the Trump campaign in February 2016 at a rally in the former senator’s home state of Alabama. Within days, Mr. Trump named him chairman of his campaign’s national-security advisory committee.
It is unclear whether anyone in Congress knew about the investigation into Mr. Sessions’ Russian interactions before Mr. Sessions was confirmed…
Evan Perez just said it on CNN, so I suppose I can here: Kislyak wasn't just ambassador, he was Russia's "top spy recruiter" in D.C.: SVR.
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) March 2, 2017
Jeff Sessions in 1999 speaking on the importance of prosecuting Bill Clinton over perjury allegations pic.twitter.com/LCV6AqZB17
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) March 2, 2017
Politico, “Sessions Under Fire Over Russian Meetings“:
Top congressional Democrats called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign Wednesday after revelations that he had met with the Russian ambassador in the months before the election — meetings that Sessions did not disclose during his confirmation hearings…
“The Attorney General must resign,” Pelosi wrote in a statement. “There must be an independent, bipartisan, outside commission to investigate the Trump political, personal and financial connections to the Russians.” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House oversight committee, also called on Sessions to resign, as did Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
In a statement in the wee hours of Thursday morning, Sessions said, “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign.”…
These latest developments come amid a sharp dispute in Congress over how to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia, with Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees questioning whether their Republican chairmen are fit to lead impartial probes.
House Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Senate Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) both made calls to reporters at the behest of the White House to challenge reports of repeated contacts during the campaign between Trump aides and Russian officials, as The Washington Post reported over the weekend.
And Nunes appeared to prejudge the outcome of his committee’s investigation on Monday, telling reporters that intelligence officials had shared with him the high points of their investigations and that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. The panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chastised Nunes later that day, saying their committee investigation was only in its initial stages and hadn’t even begun collecting evidence.
Many Democrats and a few Republicans — including McCain and Graham — have called for a select committee to investigate the issue, but GOP leaders have so far rejected those calls, which would give them less control over the course of the investigations….
Repeat after me, Repubs: “It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.”
“I did not have communications with the Russians” pic.twitter.com/bMisujylPk
— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 2, 2017
Attorney General of the United States is basically a job where it's better if the person is not a documented liar. https://t.co/n2trsmzHoI
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) March 2, 2017
Sessions also lied in his confirmation about his civil-rights record, and Ted Cruz had a tantrum about seeing anyone "impugn his integrity."
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) March 2, 2017
George W. Bush's ethics lawyer calls Sessions's talks with Russia: "Good way to go to jail" https://t.co/2G9b3BJAEN pic.twitter.com/7ZEGRtfngK
— The Hill (@thehill) March 2, 2017
So much for the #JointSession. We're on to #SessionsInTheJoint
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 2, 2017
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
Immanentize
Hi rikyrah. It is all so odd and horrible, no?
OzarkHillbilly
Hey George (Takei)? Can I just have the joint and skip the Session all together?
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
As long as Sessions’ wife didn’t exchange pleasantries with the Russians on an airport tarmac, it’s all good.
Immanentize
My friends were deeply involved in the bar complaint against KellyAnn Conway. I guess they have another project to work on.
p.a.
Is there anyone within 6 degrees of tRump who hasn’t had contacts with the Putinists?
Immanentize
@Baud: And of course there are no emails because Sessions is a Dodo.
p.a.
@OzarkHillbilly: No lf Sessions and the GodSquad have their way…
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Big credit to Louise Mensch @LouiseMensch who has been ahead of this story by months.
Back on Nov 7, the day before the election, she disclosed FISA warrants had been issued for Trump’s team. This when the failing, garage, Vichy Times were saying there were no contacts btw Trump’s team and the russians.
She was the first to say Flynn had lied about his contacts with Russia and BOOOM they eventually were exposed.
Then she called it months ago that Sessions was up to his neck in contacting Russia, and once again – BOOOOM
All hail Louise.
MomSense
Setting aside for a moment the horror of this administration, this is fascinating. This is some unbelievable intrigue full of spy hunting and clandestine services.
The show The Americans is going to have to kick it up several thousand notches now.
OzarkHillbilly
@p.a.: Alcohol it is then.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I trust he doesn’t use email either.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
it only been 16 days since Flynn was caught lying and had to resign to yesterday’s revelation that Sessions had lied.
This is moving so fucking fast.
PS They keep saying none of the contacts were wrong. But if there’s nothing wrong, then why stonewall and cover-up with a blizzard of lies?
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: well soon you can be offered counseling session in the joint for the joint that Sessions saw you with.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Also too: Louise is quite the looker (photo)
Tokyokie
I’ll be phoning the local offices of my congressional representatives to voice the opinion that should they fail to forcefully denounce Sessions and demand his immediate resignation, then they, too, should be considered accessories after the fact to treason and should be dealt with accordingly. (And yes, I am fully aware that they probably are not technically accessories to treason, as defined by the Constitution, but I feel the need to be succinct.)
OzarkHillbilly
This is scary:
I am reminded of the pic of the NY cops in riot gear lined up in front of a Chase bank during the Occupy protests.
Baud
Funny. They had no such compunction when it came to Hillary.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: They cleared her and gave her a lecture, then one week before the election went all Colombo “Wait, one more thing”.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tokyokie: They are certainly derelict in their duty to “defend the constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic”
ETA had the oath wrong by one word
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And there wasn’t even one more thing!
Baud
I love that this stomps all over the media’s bigotry-of-low-expectations praise of Trump’s address.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yup, dry hole; as we used to say when I was in Satan’s employ.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah and all!
Every day I wake up and wonder what fresh hell the Trumpistas have brought, and every day there’s something. At this rate we’ll all be dead of stress by June.
Baud
Lots of Dems saying Sessions should resign. He won’t, but I like the effort.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Um…What exactly did you do for them again?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I worked for Satan’s* legal department for 12 years, mostly in computer support.
*Satan, aka big oil.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ah, dry hole makes much more sense now. I knew that you live in America’s porn capital and got confused.
debbie
At this point, should we expect the FBI to do a real investigation?
Betty Cracker
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: She’s also kind of a wingnut, at least by British standards, but hey, anyone who helps bring Trump down is an ally! Mensch insists that Comey, of all people, will come out of this a hero. I can envision a scenario in which that happens, but not because I believe Comey is a patriot or committed public servant. I believe he imagines himself the most morally upright man in DC, and the condemnation of his unconscionable meddling in the election wounds his vanity. If he gets the opportunity to do a make-up call, he might take it.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Given who all the other top officials are, he’s the only one who has a possibility of doing the right thing here. It’s all about what he feels his incentives are.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: Comey did keep that woman with loose(email) morals from the Oval Office.
Kay
Except that’s not what the Trump White House said.
I tell my juvenile delinquents this. “You may be very smart and crafty but all your friends are morons and they’ll all be interviewed” It’s a very common problem in wrongdoing circles. ” No honor among thieves” gives them too much credit. Really it’s that they’re often morons.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I am hopeful he will resign from life.
PaulW
Trump’s ties to Russia is an honest-to-God problem that keeps getting worse because the Republicans WON’T ADMIT IT’S A PROBLEM.
Baud
@Kay: Did he perjure himself in his capacity as senator?
Jeffro
@Baud: and makes it OK for them to finally released their new revised Muslim ban … now that the Rosy press coverage will be fading and all
Baud
@Jeffro: Nothing was going to stop that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
No wonder I caught a distinct Coulter vibe when I looked at her pic.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, he’ll be the spokesmodel for Dos Equis, now that “The Most Interesting Man in the World” has rocketed off to greener pastures. Don’t think it’ll sell a lot of beer, however. Well, not outside of those people whom he drove to drink with his October Surprise, that is.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Not odd and horrible if you think about who these people are. In this context, it’s par for the course.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
From your keyboard to FSM’s
orechetitioreciechieorchestrieteears.rikyrah
@p.a.:
Nope
p.a.
@Baud:
Actually a scary thought given the subject is the FBI director. His incentive
isought to be his oath, if all else fails.Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: The contrast with their treatment of Clinton makes the whole situation seem so much more corrupt. If they’d kept quiet about both candidates, I’d be dismayed about what they let happen to the country, but I’d see it as following Justice Dept rules about not involving themselves in politics. Now the FBI feels like part of a cover up and partly responsible for putting Trump in the WH. (Although my guess is the rank and file there were less pro-Trump than anti-Hillary. It’s a boy’s club)
SFAW
@PaulW:
It’s only a problem for you damn Lie-berals who pull that “country before Partei” shit. What has THAT ever gotten you, yah LOOZAHS?
rikyrah
@MomSense:
If this were a novel,TV show, movie, the creators would have been smacked down and told to go back and edit because the project was “too far out there to be believed by the audience.”
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: Bill Clinton was impeached and lost his law license for lying under oath. Too bad for him he wasn’t a R.
efgoldman
@Baud:
I don’t think it matters what his actual capacity was. He was testifying under oath in front of a senate committee. He flat out lied. IANAL, but if it looks like perjury, quacks like perjury…
Kay
@Baud:
I feel like there’s a real yearning for these institutions and entities to be solid, so much so that people won’t admit they don’t seem to be. We’ve seen it over and over with Trump- the search for a safety, a check, some “adult” to take charge. He seems to know he needs legitimacy. The moment he was asked about that Yemen raid he went immediately to “the generals”. It was one of the weakest things I’ve ever seen a President do. He just totally passed it off- like HE doesn’t believe he can do this.
Wilson Heath
“I did not have conversations with that Russian, Mr. Kislyak.”
efgoldman
@rikyrah:
Lots of people said that initially about Watergate, too.
This is worse.
John Dean twittled last nite a reminder that the cover up is always worse….
liberal
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: she might be good on this stuff, but more generally she’s a moron.
Baud
@Kay:
Only if the Republicans are in charge. People had no problems tearing down institutions when Obama was running things.
liberal
@efgoldman: I would think this stuff would fall afoul of 18.1001, but IANAL and don’t have time to google that.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know but that’s the defense this morning. It could work, I think. I hate to say that but you’re familiar with this dynamic. The higher up they are the more eager people are to insulate them because it’s a profound injury, the AG lying under oath. We all act like there’s higher standards for people in power but that’s really not true, especially in the justice system. That’s horrible and I know it but it’s also true. I’m shocked weekly at what ordinary people go to jail for – the standards are REALLY high for them. We have a scandal brewing here where they picked up and jailed a whole bunch of people supposedly for “obstructing”. It’s outrageous. These people had no idea what they did was even a crime.
TriassicSands
TrumpCo: Lying — It’s what we do.
These guys are going to make the Nixon administration look like saints.
Iowa Old Lady
Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and what he lied about was NOT meeting with the agent of a foreign government who was interfering in the US elections.
How can Sessions remain as AG? And yet, I fear that’s exactly what will happen.
Lapassionara
I just heard that Trump’s speech got a 78% approval rating. JFC on a cracker, how could 78% of viewers approve of that horrible manipulation of a grieving widow. Sheeeesh!
Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
Get ready for it:
via TPM
Jeffro
@Lapassionara: 78% of viewers not 78% of voters
Baud
@Lapassionara: Yeah, that seems high, just based on the number of people who reflexively dislike Trump. I wonder if the poll is only of people who watched the speech. That would be self selecting.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Here’s the exact quote from Trump when asked about the botched raid:
Like you said, unbelievably weak. If any other president had said such a thing, it would be an enormous scandal.
Patricia Kayden
One great thing about Trump’s administration, it is pretty much guaranteed to destroy itself and implode given all the shadiness of its members. It’s always a new scandal with these guys. I cannot see this lasting for a full 4 years. They’re just all so slimy like their shady President. No drama Obama, indeed.
Baud
@Kay: I’d be somewhat sympathetic to the “criminalization of politics” argument if it were applied fairly to both parties and not used by Republicans to cover up their own wrongdoings. But that’s not the world we live in.
Jeffro
OT but… Reading through the Wall Street Journal this morning is highly illuminating . ( hey it is free at the hotel !)
Daniel Heninger is suggesting that Democrats get with the program and see what Trump will offer them in exchange for their votes on, say, his upcoming tax giveaways to the rich…we, excuse me…”tax reform”
” he’ll insist his tax bill include everyone has childcare proposals which would cause a revenue loss of $500 billion … democrats might ask for a tax to pay for it like the Obama Medicare surcharge on the 1% ”
Yes, Dan… i’m sure the freedom caucus is down with that new tax on the rich
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, what’s more presidential? That statement or something like, “The buck stops here. I accept full responsibility. We are going to figure out what went wrong and act to prevent something like this from happening again.”
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
They keep making this distinction that it’s the “NY Field Office” which has now expanded to the “DC Field Office” but I have no idea why that is supposed to be comforting. I mean, no one was claiming every single person in the FBI is corrupt. Is that the standard? 100% corrupt or it’s not a problem?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Lapassionara: The people that don’t like Dolt 45 didn’t watch, 78% doesn’t surprise me.
What Jeffro said.
JPL
@Baud: Senor on CBS said, that it was not perjury, because he wasn’t trying to cover up a crime. How would we know whether or not Sessions was trying to cover up a crime? What crime did Bill Clinton cover up?
I can’t wait until Chaffetz starts his Hillary investigations again. Good times!
germy
At 7am I watched CBS This Morning, and they interviewed an advisor from the Romney/Ryan presidential campaign. He said this Sessions thing was no big deal. Then they showed a graphic of Sessions, next to his denial. Then they moved on to a different story. Why was I not surprised?
Tokyokie
@Lapassionara: Perhaps most of the opposition chose, as I did, to avoid watching the speech altogether.
Baud
@JPL:
That’s idiotic.
Kay
@Jeffro:
The child care proposal will disappear the moment anyone has to pay for it. I’ve been reading the GOP “school choice” plans. The reason they’re so popular on the Right is no one has to pay for them. They can say they “improved public education” AND levy and collect fewer taxes. It is literally a free lunch.
Math doesn’t go away because conservatives want it to. All of these Trump proposals are just moving money around. No one is expected to pay anything additional for them.
OzarkHillbilly
This is interesting:
One more log on the Anthropocene fire.
Baud
@Kay: C’mon Kay. You know all Republican initiatives are paid for by increased economic growth.
Kay
@Baud:
Lapassionara
@Jeffro: @Baud: I am not sure where the stat came from, but I took it to mean 78% of people who watched the speech, and I had heard that the number of viewers was down from the Obama 2009 speech. So, I suppose most who watched were Trump fans, but still . . .. That so many fall for an obvious ploy is disheartening. It was sickening to hear about. I cannot imagine seeing it and not being outraged.
amk
house of cads.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: No, Baud, it’s paid for by WINNING!
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL:
It’s too early in the day to start with so much stupid.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: Nielsen is fake news. Trump’s speech on Tuesday night was the most watched political speech in history. Ever. Period. So says Spicey.
Epicurus
Sessions’ contention that he met “as a Senator” but not as a Trump surrogate reminds me of this:
POOH-BAH: Of course, as First Lord of the Treasury, I could propose a special vote that would cover all expenses, if it were not that, as leader of the Opposition, it would be my duty to resist it tooth and nail. Or, as Paymaster-General, I could so cook the accounts that, as Lord High Auditor, I should never discover the fraud. But then, as Archbishop of Titipu, it would be my duty to denounce my own dishonesty and give myself into my own custody, as First Commissioner of Police.
KO-KO: That’s extremely awkward.
POOH-BAH: I don’t say that all these people couldn’t be squared, but it is right to tell you that I shouldn’t be sufficiently degraded in my own estimation unless I was insulted with a very considerable bribe. — Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado
Kay
@Baud:
Private school vouchers aren’t. They don’t even claim to pay for them. They simply deduct the money from existing funds in a very roundabout way not because they’re hiding the fact that they aren’t paying for it because they have to subvert state laws on public funding of religion.
That’s why rich people love them. They are utterly and completely painless to rich people.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: What he was trying to say is IOKIYR.
different-church-lady
@SFAW:
His trip to Mars was one-way, if you recall.
amk
Is there even at least one untainted cabinet pick?
Baud
@Kay: Rich people also like them because their kids don’t go to public schools.
different-church-lady
I’m so old I can remember when you could impeach someone for lying.
Bruce K
Is it too much to hope for that the latest Sessions reveal blasted the cheeto’s speech off Page One? Because good news for the cheeto these days bears an XOR relationship to objectively good news, and the sooner the cheeto self-destructs (hopefully without taking the whole country with him), the better.
Kay
@Epicurus:
I think it’s bullshit for the simple reason that I watched the tape and the way to make that distinction is to make the distinction. Say exactly that: I met twice as a Senator but not as a surrogate.
Sessions is a fucking weasel. There was a way to do this in a forthright manner and he didn’t.
He bothers me a lot because he was desperate for this job. He really, really wanted it. My sense then and now is he would say or do anything to get it and keep it. You saw what his first two acts were- they both targeted minority groups on civil rights. The moment he got that power he so desperately wanted he went after ordinary people who are vulnerable. THAT’S his character. No one has to guess anymore.
Baud
@Kay: So you’re saying his lie was material to his confirmation.
Kay
@Baud:
True, and rich people schools don’t accept vouchers. The voucher doesn’t come near to covering the cost.
The reason rich people like Ivanka Trump like them though is because it makes them feel good about themselves. Obama actually wrote this in one of his books. He said the focus on education as a cure for poverty and racism is really popular among his wealthy donors because THEY all believe they rose entirely thru merit so they NEED to believe everyone will, or their success is worth less. His description of this was better than mine- he used SAT scores as an example of something they believe in like a religion.
Patricia Kayden
@amk: No. The fish is rotten from the head to the tail. This is what you can expect when a corrupt businessman is elected who steadfastly refuses to show the American people his persona taxes. He’s hiding something and he attracts corrupt people to him like flies to rotting fruit. Each person he has appointed or nominated has some baggage or is unqualified for their Cabinet position (looking at you, Dr. Carson). What a disaster.
D58826
@Baud: We are in ‘it all depends on what your definition of IS IS’ territory.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: Dr. Carson has been relatively quiet, which is the best thing you can say about anyone in the Trump cabinet.
Baud
@D58826: “It all depends on what hat I was wearing when conspiring with the Russians.”
Another Scott
@Lapassionara: But (comparatively) few people saw it:
Curses! Donnie was beaten by The Kenyan™ again!!11
I wouldn’t take the “approval” numbers of being indicative of much. The audience is self-selecting, and given how polarizing Trump is, most people who were inclined to watch were (most likely) pretty strong supporters already.
[ Or what half the comments above already said. ;-) ]
Cheers,
Scott.
mike in dc
@Bruce K:
It did. Now, he’ll still get some benefit out of it. But I think this is the kinda thing where the small handful of remotely rational supporters remaining scratch their chins and think “hmm…now two Cabinet level guys have lied about talking to Russia? Maybe there’s something there…”
danielx
Sessions was speaking in his capacity as a Senator, eh?
Sessions: what do y’all want?
Kislyak: senator, we have kompromat involving you and several goats, plus recordings in which you express your desire to lock up every black male in the US as part of your effort to eliminate the black vote.
Sessions: Ah have nevah made any secret of the lattuh, but those goat pics, those are a problem.
O. Felix Culpa
I have nothing to add to the conversation, so I’ll just say good morning.
D58826
@mike in dc: I think it’s time to update the old saying about a politician getting caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl. Has to happen now in Putin’s bedroom to have an impact.
OzarkHillbilly
@amk: @Patricia Kayden: They are tainted by the fact that they are in this admin to begin with.
OzarkHillbilly
@danielx: Were the goats shaved and was a quart of Wesson oil involved?
TriassicSands
@Baud:
Wait a minute. I thought they were paid for with tax cuts (which, of course, always lead to massive economic growth — See Kansas).
Kenneth Kohl
@OzarkHillbilly: so, law enforcement is doing the bidding of corporations? jesusjumpingchrist…
JPL
@danielx: Matthew Yglesias wants to know
Bruce K
Also saw an opinion title on the Washington Post site saying that if the Republican Party continues to stonewall, it’ll be political suicide. Got me thinking that the news for the GOP might be even worse than that: could be that they’ve already committed suicide, but they just haven’t stopped moving yet. You know, like the old noir movie D.O.A.?
Central Planning
CNN on Sessions: “Trump doesn’t need this distraction.” Distraction? How about scandal?
ETA – I would like news organizations to start saying “If nothing was improper and you have nothing to hide, why not allow an investigation?” Republicans LOVE to say that.
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
I didn’t recall whither he went. But, no matter …
Liberal lies! Mars ain’t Commie! It’s green like ‘Murica! None of that … oh, waitaminnit, the Commies are now our bestest buddies? And people that bad-mouth their virile leader are our enemies?
Never mind.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
All I can say is that there are rumored to be some peculiarly elfin-appearing goats on a farm in Alabama.
Wouldn’t be the first time a distinguished Senator from the South has had inconvenient offspring.
Baud
@Central Planning: Trump is the reason for this
distractionscandal.OzarkHillbilly
@Kenneth Kohl: DAPL writ small.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Lapassionara:
Most of the viewers were his base.
Or 4/Chan rick rolled the poll.
Baud
@Central Planning: What Trump needs is Andrea Mitchell to put on her pouty concerned face like she did every day with Hillary. Where is she anyway? Taking a break after a (hatchet) job well done.
Shalimar
@Baud: Sessions lied to Congress. That is totally different from lying to the VP. Is a crime, but apparently not an offense to the Trump.
Aleta
From twitter (read from bottom up)
Laura Rozen
are there US intercepts of what kislyak reported back to Russia was discussed incl. with Sessions ? 6/
Laura Rozen
denies any such meetings at nomination hearing, and does not correct the record thru staff for six weeks as flynn fired….5/
Laura Rozen
but then met with kislyak in senate office in sept., does not remember what discussed. 4/
Laura Rozen
so sessions declined lunch at Kislyak’s home in july bc already concerns abt russia hacking issue
Laura Rozen
I wonder if there is US surveillance of calls from russians to Russia afterwards about what was discussed, how this came to light 2/
Laura Rozen
WP’s Entous on NPR said Sessions met with Kislyak second time in sept in his senate office. sessions’ office not sure there are notes 1/
Laura Rozen
double taked when ranking House Judiciary Dem Elijah Cummings on npr today said they are told kislyak is top russian spy in US
Laura Rozen
so sessions thought enough about convo w kislyak to decline the lunch, but did not think worth correcting record that he had met him?
Laura Rozen
sessions IDd at state/Heritage Fdn event as snr Trump natl sec. adv, kislyak invited him to lunch, sessions declined
PaulW
@SFAW:
It got us Obama. Twice. The world may end today, but we at least had decent, competent, effective leadership for eight years.
Baud
@Aleta: Russian ambassador goes to the Senate office building and there are no records?
Central Planning
@Baud: Maybe she’s on a Russian-paid junket to the Caribbean
Peter
@OzarkHillbilly: Scary, but not surprising. Actually very tame in the history of law enforcement taking sides against labor organization.
Aleta
It’s been pointed out that Sessions staff therefore knew he was lying in the hearing. (And that if he’d been meeting K as a Senator, there would be a Senate record of it.)
Central Planning
@Aleta:
First time through I read that as “slept in his senate office”.
Aleta
@Baud: yeah exactly
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@JPL:
I am shocked no one has said that out right.
Pundit 1 “So what about Sessions chatting up this Russian spy recruiter”
Pundit 2 “Look, Sessions, is wealthy, white and a Republican. Why are we talking about this? I mean the Democrats were wearing white at Trump’s speech – that is what treason looks like”
It is seems like we are only a matter of days from that conversation.
Jado
He’ll be “allowed to resign”, if there is anything that comes from this at all.
There is NO prosecution of government officials anymore. Even for treason. It’s disgusting
Aleta
@Central Planning:
That could be an out for Sessions (oh wait if only he wasn’t such a committed homophobe).
Weaselone
@Another Scott:
I think we are being somewhat dishonest with ourselves when we try to attribute the favorable reaction to Trump’s speech as largely the result of viewer self selection. The immediate pundit reaction was also overwhelmingly favorable and likely for the same reasons the audience reacted positively.
1. Trump’s emotional manipulation of viewers using Seal Ryan Owens and his widow was successful and effective. Coming at the end of his speech, it left his audience felling patriotic, sympathetic and grateful. Trump’s speech was viewed through that filter when the pundits and viewers assessed it’s quality and impact. I suspect that how one views the speech is highly correlated with how one views Trump’s use of Ryan Owen’s widow and unless you’re highly partisan or a US military veteran or active service member, you’re probably far more likely to react positively than to correctly identify it as an act of stolen valor.
2. Trump and the media have set the bar really low for him. So low in fact, that as long as he doesn’t melt down on stage, while lashing out at the media and screaming out deranged conspiracy theories, his performance is viewed as a success. People have been warning about this phenomenon as it regards authoritarian regimes. People are hard wired to want things to be normal, so the look really hard for signs of normality.
3. Pundits gushed over and during the speech which tends to influence the opinions of the viewers
4. Trump lied a lot in his speech. Besides the invention of problems that didn’t exist which he would fix, he also lied about many of his actual policies. Tax cuts for middle class. Protecting the environment. Something better than Obamacare.
rikyrah
@different-church-lady:
LOL
OzarkHillbilly
@Peter: It’s scary in that this kind of shit was supposed to be in the past. DAPL put the lie to that, but this too.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Continue to speak truth to power.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Those who followed him knew what his character was.
He was TOO PHUCKING RACIST TO BECOME A JUDGE IN THE REAGAN ERA.
THE REAGAN ERA.
Immanentize
@JPL: Marco Rubio let it drop on NPR that it was odd for an Ambasador to meet in a Senator’s office.
germy
Just One More Canuck
@O. Felix Culpa: I’ll not interrupt this thread for a pound
Barbara
The predicate for analyzing this latest development is that Sessions is a guy who wants to put people in prison at the drop of a hat for the slightest bit of criminality, including many activities that are not harmful to anyone but the people engaging in them. Sessions has never been the sharpest knife in the drawer. How easy would it have been to say that he met with Russian ambassador as Senator on two occasions but never discussed the Trump campaign? Why would he lie under oath rather than say what he insists is the benign truth? At any rate, one reason for perjury prosecutions is that you sometimes can’t prove underlying crimes, and it’s just a lot more convenient and straightforward to get someone for perjury. Sessions very evidently understood this when it came to Bill Clinton’s dalliances with women — proving Paula Jones’ allegations was hard. Proving that Clinton lied under oath was not as hard. And the easiest question in the world to ask Sessions or anyone who speaks on his behalf is — do you think smoking marijuana is worthier of prison time than perjury? How can someone who is so compromised enforce the law?
Aleta
Trump must be pleased with how his show is dominating the ratings.
Corner Stone
@danielx:
Several goats? I have to say my impression of the traitorous AG just rose a bit.
Denying black people the vote is easy peasy to an old hand like Jefferson. But taking on several goats? Now that’s saying something!
Aleta
@Barbara:
Clinton: That was not sex. Sessions: That was not a meeting.
Barbara
@Immanentize: Well, yeah, it is indeed odd. Really, really odd. Like if you polled every senator who has been in the Senate for at least two years I bet that no one other than Sessions has held a meeting with the ambassador of a foreign country in their office. Basically, Senators don’t have enough time to meet with most ambassadors of individual countries, and all the other ambassadors are too important to bother meeting with individual U.S. senators. It’s also a matter of protocol — the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. might meet with a group of Senators but that would be part of a well-organized and pre-scheduled meeting with a set agenda.
rikyrah
@JPL:
EXCELLENT QUESTION
and a good way to twist that knife.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
I think someone should “let it drop” that all Senators’ offices have listening devices, just to see how Sessions responds. (Of course, he may be too stupid to understand the implications, were they actually wired that way.)
JPL
@Immanentize: Maybe Marco doesn’t want to go down with the ship.
Barbara
@Aleta: It WAS a meeting. They have already had to admit that much. No, he has to say that it was not a meeting in my capacity as surrogate for the Trump administration. The problem is that it would have led to some really, really awkward questions and Jeff Sessions isn’t smart enough to field that kind of questioning with anything approaching a deft or quick witted response. It would have sunk him. That’s why he lied.
Immanentize
@SFAW: I may be too hopeful or something — but I am starting to think Rubio is playing a rather clever game of longterm payback to both Sessions and Trump. I know he is not a clever fellow, but he knows some clever people…..
SFAW
@germy:
Quelle fucking surprise that the media got played again. Fucking morons.
At least Charlie Brown had the excuse that he was too good a person to believe the worst of others — what’s theirs?
Yarrow
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Indeed. Louise has been excellent on this topic. She’s on to all sorts of things now, like Anthony Weiner wasn’t hit on by a 16 year old girl; instead he was catfished by a group of Russians (probably men) to gain access to Huma Abedin’s computer where they planted Hillary’s emails. Sole purpose to disrupt the campaign. It sounds completely made up but she’s got data to back it up.
And that’s without even getting into her following Russian planes and the discrepancies she’s discovered in their identification numbers. She’s relentless.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Yeah, Marco ain’t the brightest bulb in the ocean, but it would be interesting to learn that he’s someone’s tool in this deal.
JMG
Sessions didn’t just perjure himself. More seriously to many Senators, he violated the codes of their little club by lying to THEM. Now his supporters look foolish. Despite party loyalty, I’ll bet many of them would be very happy and/or relieved if Sessions resigns. The Attorney General testifies before Congress many times in the course of his/her tenure. Democrats will make a big deal of having Sessions sworn in every time he does.
Then they can ask him anything they like.
Immanentize
@SFAW: In the same interview Rubio sort of dumped Burr in the fire too suggesting softly that he really shouldn’t be talking about information that has not yet but will be made available to every Intel. Cmmt. member
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@SFAW:
Also explained the media gushing over the speech, the Trump admin spent the day before stroking their egos. These talking heads are basically the same thing as Trump is.
Barbara
Just to add to my above comment: Ambassadors don’t freelance. Even if they wanted to they can’t, because everything they do is seen as an official action of the nation they represent. This is one reason why ambassadors don’t generally meet alone with individual senators at all, let alone without a script or an official reason. Being an ambassador is a little like being a judge. You have to be really careful not to give the wrong impression even in your social engagements.
Alain the site fixer
@Aleta: Clinton was correct. As a at-the-time DC citizen, I was aware that D.C. law stated that oral sex was not sexual relations. He was a lawyer in DC and had to watch his words very precisely….
artem1s
@Bruce K:
chickens with their heads cut off. The GOP may have been dead since before the convention. I pretty much figured that it would be the intelligence community that would take Twittler down. Especially after he started ducking the security briefings. the only thing that could make the GOP primary turn out the way it did was if the there was something keeping the top insiders from directly attacking a obviously weak candidate. Even Cruz, who is as deluded as anyone about being invulnerable wouldn’t go there. And neither would Jeb and his family pretty much makes him untouchable and unprosecutable. If it was so bad they didn’t want to get tainted with it’s stink, it had to be pretty horrendous AND provable. And they knew it was something that would completely tank them and the GOP during the general election. We still desperately need a John Dean to turn on the Russian CABAL. There might not be anyone inside enough who is willing to do prison time (or risk death by polonium). But there does seem to be someone in IC who is determined to keep this story alive. Hopefully someone will decide soon that digging the hole deeper isn’t going to work out the way they hoped.
Spanky
@rikyrah: The Capitol visitor log books are government records and therefore accessible at least by FOIA, are they not?
Spanky
Well! Lookee what the FTFNYT has put out:
+ more.
Yarrow
Yep.
cmorenc
@Jado:
If hypothetically this matter does eventually lead to Sessions’ resignation as AG, what sorts of other nasty Troglodytes might be waiting in the wings as potential nominations for his replacement? I thought Sessions was about the worst possible pick for AG, but we should never underestimate the capacity of team Trump to make even more terrible choices than we thought ever possible. Not saying here that we should prefer Sessions to stay on as the devil we know rather than take our chances on some devil we don’t know – but rather that there are no moves available that will force team Trump to make sound choices when one of their picks goes bad on them.
D58826
I’m not sure the two reactions are mutually exclusive. Watching Mrs. Owen’s in such obvious pain and grief was a very emotional moment. And you would have to be a rock not to have reacted to it with empathy.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t see it as a cheap trick by Trump.
I thin k there is an additional reason why many people viewed favorably. The non-news junkies were probably unaware that Trump passed the buck and threw the military under the bus earlier in the day. Of course even for them the con should have been revealed when he bragged about setting an applause record.
Tazj
@Barbara: You’re correct. Eric Boehlert RT
Claire McCaskili@ clairemc 3h
I’ve been on the Armed Services for 10 years. No call or meeting w/Russian ambassador. Ever. Ambassadors call members of Foreign Rel. Com.
LongHairedWeirdo
@?BillinGlendaleCA: THEY DID NOT!!!
Columbo does that with the GUILTY party, not the persecuted innocent person! I won’t have you insult that fictional detective – is he not deserving of the same respect due a box of rocks which I think we all agree doesn’t deserve to be used in comparison to Trump?
schrodingers_cat
@germy: I knew it. I said so at that time. They lie and lie. Assume everything they say is a lie, including, and, and the, unless proven otherwise.
At his heart T is about hating on everyone that’s not white or Christian. Period. That’s what makes him tick and that’s true for most of the base as well.
D58826
@Barbara:
Well he will give a pass to the white fundamentalist Christians since to err is human etc etc…..
Jinchi
@Lapassionara:
I read that 7 out of 10 people “who watched the speech” liked it. I think that’s a critical qualification. I don’t know how that breaks out compared to the population as a whole, but it’s probably similar to the number of people who attended his inauguration versus those who attended the Women’s March.
Frankly, I hate the sound of the man’s voice so much that I can’t even tolerate Alec Baldwin’s parody of it.
Corner Stone
@Jinchi:
I didn’t think I could hate a voice so much. And when he does that thing where he goes up a half octave or whatever and “softens” it, like he’s explaining how to use a coloring book to toddlers, makes me want to choke a mother effer.
And that fat puffy toad pouch neck. And those tiny hands constantly shifting between the same three gestures. FUUUCCCKKK!!!
Barbara
@cmorenc: Maybe Sessions was chosen mostly to make sure that Trump’s Russian dealings would stay buried. Implicating him in the mess would be a good way to start. It’s much harder to convince someone with clean hands to do a lot of dirty work.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: Agreed. And the media take the bait. A better way for them to “report” these kinds of stories is to also include comments about how there is no confirmation and this could be a trial balloon and may never happen. But they take the bait every time.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
He’s still a few hours away from being confirmed and sworn in. Confirmation vote on Carson is later today.
Rick Perry/Energy is set for tomorrow, and I think once he is sworn in, Trump will have a full Cabinet.
And then what a good time we’re all going to have!!
Tokyokie
@Bruce K: Except that in D.O.A., the walking dead fellow was the good guy.
Tazj
@Tazj: Oh well. Just clicking around the internet I just saw this on Chris Hayes’ twitter feed. Claire McCaskill has met twice with Russian ambassadors in the past because she said so on her twitter feed per Charles C.W. Cooke@ charles cooke.
hovercraft
The stuff we haven’t seen yet must be really damming, McCaskill Calls For Attorney General Jeff Sessions To Resign
rikyrah
@Spanky:
One would think so.
CaseyL
@SiubhanDuinne: Carson and Perry will be the least offensive members of 45’s Cabinet, in that they are merely unequipped for the job and low-level grifters, rather than fascists intent on destroying the US.
hovercraft
@Jinchi:
Re that approval rating, the people who choose to watch are largely supportive to begin with , so they are more inclined to approve of the speech. Via CNN
Kay
Sessions is still saying he will recuse himself “if necessary”. This is this amazingly arrogant attitude Republicans have adopted- that they and they alone determine ethical issues. You know what this is? It’s elitist. Mere mortals have to follow rules. The powerful make their own rules and we can trust them to do that because they are IN FACT better than other people. It is offensive to even question whether they are self-interested.
For ordinary people criminal justice is a set of bright-line rules and demands and they comply. They comply because they know they will get hammered if they don’t. He thinks the rules and laws that apply to every person they parade thru in belly chains and plastic slippers are a matter of his personal discretion.
It can’t BE any reason than he thinks he’s better. That’s the only explanation.
They are turning their own justice system into a joke. No regular person will have ANY faith in it and they shouldn’t. It’s two-tiered. Blatantly.
Aleta
I want Kushner questioned under oath. I sure hope he’s sweating the investigations. Though probably we will never be told if he has been investigated, unless someone implicates him.
rikyrah
George W. Bush Breaks Down His Affection for Michelle Obama: ‘We Just Took to Each Other’
To some, they might seem an unlikely twosome: a former president and former first lady from two different administrations, different political parties, different generations and different upbringings.
But George W. Bush tells PEOPLE that he feels a real fondness for Michelle Obama.
“She kind of likes my sense of humor. Anybody who likes my sense of humor, I immediately like,” says Bush, in an interview to launch his first art book and new exhibit, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors, a collection of his paintings of post-9/11 war veterans.
Bush, 70, notes that he was regularly seated beside Obama, 53, at official events like Nancy Reagan’s memorial service, an interfaith memorial service for Texas police officers last year, and the September 2016 dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C., to mark the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. There, photos of the two of them cuddling on stage went viral.
Elizabelle
Good morning, all. Fuck the Fucking New York (Vichy) Times alert that Jason Chaffetz and Jeff McCarthy — Republicans, so they count — have suggested JB Sessions 3 recuse himself.
No idea if they will weasel walk those statements back, being weasels (apologies to small mammals), but it’s out there…
rikyrah
@Kay:
When I saw that, my lips pursed hard.
D58826
@Tazj: There was a link on my iphone that the meetings involved the adoption of Russian kids and was attended by 10 Senators. Had nothing to do with her Mil. Affairs committee membership which is what she was talking about.
Lurking Canadian
What the hell will it take for McConnell and Ryan to cut Trump loose? I mean, yeah, yeah, afraid of the base, but you can’t tell me they can’t sell HE WAS A FUCKING RUSSIAN SPY as a good reason. Especially if Fox gets behind it, which they would. I just don’t understand it.
Aleta
@Kay: These jokers treat lies as a normal byproduct of doing business.
D58826
@rikyrah: You know if this guy had been elected to the office of ‘person I’d like to have a bear with at a ballgame’ the country would have been a lot better off.
The Moar You Know
@Lurking Canadian: His “base” wouldn’t give a shit. Really wouldn’t. I don’t think most people understand just how far gone these people are.
Tazj
@D58826: Oh, ok. The perils of Twitter.
D58826
@Lurking Canadian: Just wait till they get all of their legislative agenda signed off by Das Fuhrer. But then it might be a question of how do I get off this tiger w/o being eaten.
tobie
@Lurking Canadian: McConnell, Ryan and company want their tax cuts, deregulation, and the complete obliteration of the last vestiges of the New Deal. Once they get that, they’ll turn on Trump. He’s the useful idiot for BOTH the Russians and the GOP.
D58826
yep. Somebody found the tweets about the meeting as a way to defend Sessions and then someone else found the article about the substance of the meeting.
Yarrow
@Lurking Canadian: The problem for McConnell and Ryan is THEY KNEW. They knew before the election because they were shown the intelligence. They’ve known all along. They cut Trump loose and they can go down as well. They’re hoping to ride this out but it’s not going to go well for them. Their best bet is to distance themselves months ago. They didn’t do it. They will pay.
McConnell particularly is up to his eyeballs in something. I still maintain that his body language when he changed his tune in the course of a few days from “no investigation” to “okay, yeah, we’ll investigate” was that of a man who was being forced to do so. He looked like he was being held hostage. He’s guilty of something and he’s terrified of it coming out.
Tick tock, motherfuckers.
Bruce K
“If necessary”? From what I can see, “necessary” was days ago, and the next stop on this train after “perjury” is “treason”. Oh, and the last time I checked, Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution applies to the President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States.
Iowa Old Lady
Recuse himself? I repeat, Bill Clinton was impeached and lost his law license for lying under oath, and quibbles over what is is didn’t matter. I don’t know why this infuriates me more than other stuff that this administration has handed out lately, but it does. Maybe because it drives home how much they don’t care about the law.
Spanky
@D58826: A bear?
Another Scott
@Tazj: RawStory says that McCaskill’s own Twitter feed says that she did meet with the Russian ambassador… [ As I see you’ve subsequently noted. ]
BothSides™!!11
Cheers,
Scott.
Corner Stone
@Spanky: I was wondering what kind of sporting events he was in to. But then decided I probably did not want to know.
Gelfling 545
If he met with him “as a senator” why didn’t he say THAT instead of ” No.” in the hearing?
Mnemosyne
@cmorenc:
I have a name to send shivers down your spine: Attorney General Kris Kobach.
Note: I don’t have any insider knowledge, but that’s where I would place my bet.
Barbara
@D58826: The meeting might have been benign. Why did he lie about it?
kindness
Sessions demanded President Bill Clinton’s impeachment because Clinton lied about consensual adultery. Now we see Sessions lies about consensual treason and believes he deserves a pass.
D58826
@Another Scott: @<a href="#comment- going to re-add this about McCaskill
6272118″>Barbara: Yep could have been totally innocent but your right – why the need to lie. Heck even if the meeting was about smuggling Russian caviar into the country thru Mobile and he had just said the meeting discussed trade issues it would not be a story today.
Feebog
Another point to be made here is that if Sessions truly “forgot” about his meetings with Kislyak during testimony, he had the opportunity to correct the record anytime thereafter. Being a member of the Senate, Sessions knows this quite well. So that excuse is effectively null. Also, Sessions had to know this would come up during his confirmation hearing given the controversy around the Trump/Russia ties and his connection to the campaign. If he didn’t anticipate this he is too dumb to be A.G. If he did anticipate it then he knowingly lied and committed perjury.
les
@Mnemosyne:
And it’s damn effective at the shivers thing. Kobach is a fucking snake.
My Truth Hurts
Boy it’s a good thing the Democrats filibustered Sessions nomination before he was locked into the position instead of rolling over to “pick their battles”. Otherwise they might have found it difficult to get rid of him.
zhena gogolia
@My Truth Hurts:
They couldn’t filibuster Sessions.
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: God, I hope this is true. ‘Tis a mad world, my masters, when I find myself rooting for Marco Rubio.
J R in WV
Well, I’m gonna join the team that thinks “recuse myself if needed” shouldn’t be sufficient!
No chance we tolerate a faithless liar in the highest level of government! A reasonable doubt of one’s integrity and faithfulness to one’s oath and you are gone! Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III violated his oath as a Senator and as a witness when he lied about that meeting. We know he is a faithless liar right now, today.
He should be gone from the DoJ immediately, the congress should meet tonight and have it done in 2 hours, that’s an hour for the House to vote and another whole hour for the Senate. Then he can have a trial on the perjury charge… or just go back to Alabama as the unemployable penniless bastard he really is.