In a prime-time interview with Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions hoped to stop the bleeding caused by the recent revelation that he met twice with the Russian ambassador during the campaign.
Instead, he made matters much worse by rolling out a fresh set of lies.
Full interview:
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Even though Sessions lied during his confirmation hearing in January, the attorney general claimed he was completely honest and did nothing wrong.
“I think I gave an honest answer,” Sessions said to Carlson, referring to what he said during his confirmation hearing when he told Sen. Al Franken that he “did not have communications with the Russians.”
Sessions did, in fact, meet with the Russian ambassador on more than one occasion during the campaign – the same campaign the Russians were interfering in – so it’s unclear how he was giving an honest response when it was clearly not true.
The attorney general apparently can’t even be honest about whether he was being honest.
Sessions then added another lie to his repertoire, saying that he “didn’t have a meeting with [the Russian ambassador] a couple of times.” This despite the fact that as a senator and high-profile member of the Trump campaign team, Sessions did, in fact, communicate with the Russian ambassador twice.
The attorney general then said that he doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.
“I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with a U.S. Senator meeting with an ambassador from Russia,” he said, calling the response to his lie “hyped beyond reason.”
The problem, though, isn’t just that Sessions met with the Russian ambassador at a time when Moscow was working to defeat Hillary Clinton and help Trump. It’s even more troubling that he lied about it.
Instead of coming clean and admitting that he didn’t tell the truth when he was initially asked about it, Sessions doubled down. In doing so, he made things much worse for himself and raised more questions about his ability to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
