Yesterday, I noted that the Trump administration’s defense against the proof of collusion with Russia introduced by the guilty plea of former staffer George Papadopoulos was essentially claiming that the Attorney General perjured himself during congressional testimony. I also said that this was going to put Jeff Sessions in an impossible position the next time he has to testify before Congress.
Here’s some fresh evidence of that.
There is interest from Democrats on both the Senate intelligence and judiciary committees for Sessions to formally clarify his remarks made before both committees given what’s now known about his interactions with Papadopoulos, a Senate aide told CNN…
…Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 in Republican leadership who serves on the intelligence and judiciary panels, said he was unaware of Sessions’ attendance at that meeting until now.
He added: “I certainly think it’s a legitimate area of inquiry” for lawmakers to pursue.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said Thursday he was still learning all the details about the Papadopoulos matter.
Asked if Sessions should amend his testimony before his committee, Grassley told CNN: “I’m looking into it.”
I know that Sessions and Grassley are pretty mealy-mouthed and circumspect in their comments there, but they hardly offered a defense. Cornyn actually said it was legitimate to ask whether Sessions had lied and to discuss what ought to be done about it.
Also, it appears that Sessions has had a sudden recollection of being a prime witness to collusion with Russia.
Sessions definitely needs to clarify the record or “correct” his testimony or whatever it is you do when you’re caught having lied to Congress. We know he’ll say that he forgot all about Papadopoulos just like he forgot meeting with the Russian ambassador at the Mayflower Hotel.
But it’s not believable.
PTRD
Post Traumatic Russian Disorder
Franken is on the case
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/franken-blasts-sessions-papadopoulos-you-failed-to-tell-the-tr
uth
Ah. Now I understand why Beauregard was so quick to recuse himself. He was betting that recusal would put a lot of distance between Russia and the truth.
They might make noises about Sessions perjury, but would they prosecute him for that?
Color me skeptical!
To keep all the lies straight, obviously.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave
when first we practice to deceive.”
You are being too easy on him, Booman. They need to charge him, put him on trial, convict, and throw him in jail. If you go with the bad memory theme, then tell him he needs to resign since he is too senile to hold such an important job.
“Bad memory” worked very well throughout the Iran/Contra hearings — especially given that Reagan never had to testify since it was an open secret that he didn’t know or remember anything and was already senile (which we were all supposed to politely overlook, for reasons that are not clear in retrospect).
Basically Watergate sent the whole cabinet to prison, and the conservative establishment looked at that and vowed, “never again” (and have been able to uphold that vow).
Cheney and Rumsfeld and the other Ford-era retreads made up their minds in the 1970s that we were looking at a balance of power between the Legislative and Executive branches and the solution was to amp up the power of the Executive branch, particularly in contexts where “national security” could be used as a blanket rationale for secrecy, disobedience and deceit, and those goals came to full fruition during the George W. Bush regime.
It remains to be seen where that power balance rests now. Obama pursued a more liberal agenda but was every bit as “executive power”-minded as Bush, arguably (although he didn’t have a John Woo trying to rewrite the concept of law and he didn’t have a Cheney trying to run the entire planet by proxy).
Trump is basically a chaotic power vacuum — he doesn’t know how to use the power he’s got and he’s clearly disinterested in forging alliances or operating the system at all, so it’s like a collapse of the Executive — all Cheney’s plans come to naught. But it doesn’t seem to matter, because the congress won’t cross him, because an unexpected new power has emerged: the crazy Republican voters. Interesting times.
The crazy Republican voters are pawns. The actual power is Fox News, Sinclair Broadcasting, Matt Drudge, Breitbart, right-wing pastors, etc. – the manipulators of the pawns.
Racism, anger,fear etc. are good for the Conservative Entertainment Complex business model.
Should have mentioned Fox and Friends, considering its influence over crazy Grandpa in the White House.
Respectfully, I don’t think so. I think Trump winning all those primaries was the awakening of “the sleeping giant” — the moment when it became clear that the decades’ worth of Murdoch/Ailes propaganda had fallen on fertile ground, more than anyone had foreseen.
In other words, Fox News etc. created a monster, and the 2016 Republican primaries were the awakening of that monster to its own power, independent of Washington or cable news or anything else. Hannity etc. are still just chasing ratings; Murdoch hates Trump and Aiiles is gone; at this point the power relations have reversed and Trump is now, as I said, a chaotic power vacuum, useless (or actively destructive) to anyone in actual power, hated by all, but protected by that 35% who will vote against any Republican who opposes Trump in any way.
Bannon etc. (and Ingraham) may try to piggyback atop this new power bloc, but the point where they were guiding, controlling or creating it is, I think, long past. The Trump voters are too volatile and contrarian and angry and suspicious to be controlled by anyone but Trump. It’s a perfectly symbiotic relationship — Trump and his rally crowds, and the Twitter feed that connects them — and as idiotic and irrelevant as it is; as disconnected as it is from governance or legislation or anything in the fucking adult world, it’s the main thing going on right now; it’s the falling elevator we’re all trapped inside.
Really? This crap about Uranium did not originate at the grass roots, nor did the notion Clinton is the real colluder with the Russian meddling.
These are tribalists who follow the lead of the tribal elders. Trump is one tribal elder, sure, but one of many. He certainly does not, for example, have sole control of the very influential Christian Right part of the GOP base, who listen more to other leaders.
Also, BTW, Trump himself is a pawn manipulated by Fox and Friends etc.
Etc. would include Trump kowtowing to his hero Vladimer, so that’s a new wrinkle.
Couple his debt to the Russians with his narcissistic personality and you get an easily manipulated man. Reagan and Bush fils were also manipulated but for different reasons.
Don’t forget talk radio, which I believe was into this well before FOX news became a power. Limbaugh is national, but every metro area has its Limbaugh wannabe.
Yes, and many of the local right-wing talk radio hosts are even more extreme and more outlandish than Limbaugh. I suppose this is to get a following, and to gain attention for these up-and-coming radio hosts, but it’s unbelievably toxic.
Hopefully this works? If not here’s Jefferson Beauregard Sessions’ theme song.