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Democrats were aghast after learning Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice, as a senator, with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. without telling Congress at his confirmation hearing – but it turns out Sergey Kislyak is no stranger to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
The longtime Russian ambassador met with seven then-Democratic senators in a single sit-down in 2013, among other discussions – and reportedly was a frequent visitor to the Obama White House.
As House Speaker Paul Ryan put it Thursday, “We meet with ambassadors all the time.”
The central issue dogging Sessions is not so much that he met with the ambassador but that he claimed during his confirmation hearing he had no “communications” with Russian officials during his time as a Trump campaign surrogate. In a press conference, though, Sessions rejected claims he misled Congress and suggested he was answering in the context of campaign-related discussions, which he maintains he never had.
But some Sessions critics nevertheless portrayed meetings with Kislyak, whose country was accused of meddling in the 2016 campaign, as a rare summit, particularly for a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee like Sessions.
The most forceful such statement came from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who tweeted that she had “been on the Armed Services Com for 10 years. No call or meeting w/Russian ambassador. Ever. Ambassadors call members of Foreign Rel Com.”
That was quickly proven untrue.
A pair of tweets first unearthed by National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke showed McCaskill twice wrote messages about meetings with Kislyak, in 2013 and 2015.
“Off to meeting w/Russian Ambassador. Upset about the arbitrary/cruel decision to end all U.S. adoptions, even those in process,” McCaskill tweeted on Jan. 30, 2013.
On Aug. 6, 2015, McCaskill wrote: “Today calls with British, Russian, and German ambassadors re: Iran deal. #doingmyhomework.”
McCaskill later blamed Twitter's character limit for the seeming disparity in her claims, suggesting the limit prevented her from being more specific in Thursday's tweet. She told The Weekly Standard there was “no contradiction,” and clarified she never had a “one-on-one meeting” with the ambassador. FactCheck.org still labeled McCaskill’s claim as “false.”
McCaskill’s 2013 meeting was the one involving a total of seven Democratic senators. She joined several Republicans and six other Democratic senators that day in an appeal to Kislyak for Moscow to reverse its blockade of U.S. adoptions of Russian children.
Other Democratic senators in that meeting were: Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Klobuchar said in a statement afterward that she was able to tell Kislyak the stories of families she met in Minnesota.Landrieu is no longer a senator after losing her seat in 2014.
President Trump also took a shot Friday at top Democrats seeking to expose his supposed Russia ties – tweeting out a newly unearthed photo of a younger Sen. Chuck Schumer and Vladimir Putin enjoying coffee and donuts.
The issue isn't that people are speaking to the Russians. There are legitimate reasons to speak to the Russians.
The issue is that people (particularly those close and/or connected with Trump) are doing so and being super sketchy about it (e.g. lying under oath (even going out of their way to mention themselves as Sessions did in his hearing - when the question wasn't even about him!!), or giving weird answers to simple questions about it).
It makes the entire relationship between Trump and Russia very suspicious. When you throw in the suspicions of Russia's involvement in election interference and Trump's odd praise of Putin/Russia over the years, it makes the entire thing more possibly explosive and interesting.
Why are people continually misunderstanding this simple point???
Last edited by HockeyMac18; 03-03-2017 at 02:32 PM..
They have nothing and after Obama doubled the national debt and failed as President he is desperate to not lose everything he had going as President.
We have leaks from his ex-employees within the intelligence community. (FELONY)
Obama took money from fines and lawsuits against banks and instead of directing those to victims, he sent them to radical leftist protest groups with allegiance to Obama and the Democrat party.
I think if he wasn't the second black ever (since Bill Clinton claimed to be the first), that Obama would have been in jail.
Don't forget, Obama sent guns to Mexico that went to Cartels who then used them to kill Americans and Mexicans.
Obama spied on allies and our press.
Obama doubled the national debt in one Presidency.
Obama announced leaving Iraq early getting tons of Christians and Muslims killed by Isis who he birthed by abandoning early our victory there. Hundred of thousands died due to Obama over this.
Obama's mess has caused tons of refugees from Sharia loving terrorist ridden areas to basically invade Europe with mostly young men who should have stayed home to fight for their country.
We learned that the press is mostly all Democrats and that Hillary was given the questions in advance.
Democrats have done nothing for years for blacks or to stop the numerous deaths in black areas like Chicago.
Lastly, the video of Obama with the Russian ambassador where he told him to wait for him to win a second term and then he could work with them.
Russians, Oh MY.
Funny how Clinton was criticized harshly for "lying" about emails but those same people now want to give Trump and Co. a free pass for lying about meeting with Russian Ambassadors/spies. Give me a break.
I think now that he has recused himself this will probably start to go away, but the issue isn't meeting with Kislyak, the issue is not disclosing it when asked under oath.
Recusing himself was the right thing to do. Lets get to the bottom of this. I still think that there is absolutely no there there, but there is no reason that we can't find that out in a fair manner.
Now, on every other issue in ever other way, the Dems are killing themselves. Even on the Russian issue, they look like fools and don't even know it since:
A) They were so proud of the "Russian reset" and touted it as one of Hillary's finest moments.
B) That ignorant manchild who was president for eight years was told by Mitt Romney that the Russians were still a dangerous enemy and the boob famously said, in a debate "The eighties called Mitt...they want their foreign policy back." The guy looks more and more like an eighth grade dunce as the years pass.
C) No one has denied what was in the wiki leaks and it brands the Democrat party as a criminal enterprise. We are only being told that we should not know about it because it comes from Russians, which is pathetic.
D) We still do not know what it is that the Trump administration supposedly did. Did they meet with the Russians so the Russians could assure them to their face: "don't worry, we got this." It is stupid. What do the Democrats think is the end game here, and do they really think anyone cares about this above the fact that Trump is already a transformative president?
The issue isn't that people are speaking to the Russians. There are legitimate reasons to speak to the Russians.
The issue is that people (particularly those close and/or connected with Trump) are doing so and being super sketchy about it (e.g. lying under oath (even going out of their way to mention themselves as Sessions did in his hearing - when the question wasn't even about him!!), or giving weird answers to simple questions about it).
It makes the entire relationship between Trump and Russia very suspicious. When you throw in the suspicions of Russia's involvement in election interference and Trump's odd praise of Putin/Russia over the years, it makes the entire thing more explosive and interesting.
Why are people continually misunderstanding this simple point???
Not true, and you are out of your mind if you think he was lying under oath.
They have in some places been playing the questions Sessions was asked and in no way do they match up with the questions the fake news reports claim he was answering. Sessions never said he never met with Russians as a Senator, they all meet with people. This is the left wing desperation that is going to help Democrats see an even bigger loss in 2018.
Funny how Clinton was criticized harshly for "lying" about emails but those same people now want to give Trump and Co. a free pass for lying about meeting with Russian Ambassadors/spies. Give me a break.
Well, I guess we can do another fake,rigged investigation like they did with Hillary thereby clearing them..... Would that make y'all feel better?
The issue isn't that people are speaking to the Russians. There are legitimate reasons to speak to the Russians.
The issue is that people (particularly those close and/or connected with Trump) are doing so and being super sketchy about it (e.g. lying under oath (even going out of their way to mention themselves as Sessions did in his hearing - when the question wasn't even about him!!), or giving weird answers to simple questions about it).
It makes the entire relationship between Trump and Russia very suspicious. When you throw in the suspicions of Russia's involvement in election interference and Trump's odd praise of Putin/Russia over the years, it makes the entire thing more explosive and interesting.
Why are people continually misunderstanding this simple point???
Partisan much?
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