House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and the mainstream media have launched a full-scale attack on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and are calling for him to resign.
But while the mainstream media spin machine is on the offensive, they’re ignoring the truth — these attacks are totally unfair.
New leaks, first reported Wednesday by The Washington Post, have revealed the Sessions met twice with the Russian ambassador during the U.S. election.
But these so-called “bombshell” leaks have only revealed that Sessions was doing the day-to-day business of being a U.S. senator, which was his job at the time.
In fact, Sessions had more than 25 conversations with different foreign ambassadors last year in his role as a U.S. senator and senior member of the Armed Services Committee. And yes, that included two separate interactions with Kislyak, the Department of Justice confirmed.
One was a visit in September in his capacity as a senator, similar to meetings with envoys from Britain, China, Germany and other nations, the department said.
The other occurred in a group setting following a Heritage Foundation speech that Sessions gave during the summer, when several ambassadors — including the Russian ambassador — approached Sessions after the talk as he was leaving the stage.
That’s it.
Not exactly the scandal the liberal media is hyping up, is it?
Of course, that truth hasn’t stopped the mainstream media from whipping up the public into a frenzy.
To feed the fire, Pelosi and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings have both demanded Sessions resigned, implying this is proof Sessions was party to a Russian conspiracy to interfere in the U.S. election.
Sessions, an early supporter of President Donald Trump’s candidacy and a policy adviser to the Republican, did not disclose those discussions at his Senate confirmation hearing in January when asked what he would do if “anyone affiliated” with the campaign had been in contact with officials of the Russian government.
And that’s true, because Sessions was not affiliated with the Trump campaign at that time.
He was a senator — and it is extremely normal for senators to meet with foreign ambassadors from all over the world, including Russia, while in office.
In a statement late Wednesday, Sessions said, “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said Wednesday night that “there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer.”
That statement did not satisfy Democrats, who mounted a full-scale media assault Thursday. Pelosi, for example, has publicly called Sessions a liar and demanded he resign.
Sessions said Thursday in a brief interview with NBC, “I have said that, when it’s appropriate, I will recuse myself.”
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier called the disclosure of the talks with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, “the latest attack against the Trump administration by partisan Democrats.” She added that Sessions “met with the ambassador in an official capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is entirely consistent with his testimony.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article