A Twitter user on Wednesday night tweeted “Dude, seriously?” at Secretary Jeff Sessions. That seems to be the reaction of nearly every Republican in power, after allegations surfaced that Sessions had contact with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak while serving as a Trump surrogate.
The Washington Post revealed that Sessions had, on two occasions, spoken with Kislyak—the same Russian Ambassador Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn spoke to in the lead up to Donald Trump’s inauguration—once in July and once in September, ahead of the November election. Both meetings are described as “casual,” but Sessions was the only Senator who Kislyak met with all of 2016.
Sessions’s former colleagues—including top Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham—aren’t rushing to his defense. Both noted in a town hall meeting Wednesday night that Sessions should recuse himself if the FBI launches an independent investigation into ties between Russia and Trump.
“[I]f there’s something there that the FBI thinks is criminal in nature, then for sure you need a special prosecutor. If that day ever comes, I’ll be the first one to say it needs to be somebody other than Jeff,” Graham said.
Sen. Rob Portman, speaking on the issue, said he agreed with Graham. “Jeff Sessions is a former colleague and a friend, but I think it would be best for him & for the country to recuse himself from the DOJ Russia probe.”
Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Darrell Issa are calling on Sessions to clarify his testimony, not on Democrats to lay off the new DOJ head. Only President Donald Trump rushed to Sessions’s defense, calling the movement for Sessions’s rescusal or resignation a Democratic “witch hunt.”
Late Thursday afternoon, Sessions announced that he would recuse himself from any criminal investigation or Justice Department probe related to the 2016 Presidential election.
The implication seems to be that no contact with Russia, however casual, can truly ever be innocent in the age of Trump, and Republicans want no part of campaign-era players whose actions feed into the narrative that Trump’s Presidency was orchestrated by outside forces.
This is likely because, when it comes to Trump and Russia, the connections do look shady. Lt. Gen. Flynn already provided a clear example of how Trump officials collaborated with foreign entities, specifically Kislyak, and then deliberately misled investigators and other Trump officials. Its not unreasonable to believe that other people, even those loosely attached to the campaign itself, may have had inappropriate contacts, as well.
That changes the way foreign relations are done, almost completely, both before and after Trump’s election.
Sessions’s office says that concern is misplaced. He was asked whether he had contact with the Russians about the Trump campaign and Sessions did not, his office claims. His interactions with Kislyak were part of his job as a legislator.