After Democrats spent the week bashing Attorney General Jeff Sessions for saying during his confirmation hearings that he hadn’t met the Russian ambassador while working for the Trump campaign, President Trump fired back. On Friday, Trump blasted both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — both of whom have met the Russian ambassador:
On Thursday, Schumer had called for Sessions to resign, snapping, “There cannot be even the scintilla of doubt about the impartiality and fairness of the attorney general, the top law enforcement official of the land. Because the Department of Justice should be above reproach, for the good of the country Attorney General Sessions should resign.”
Pelosi echoed, “After lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign. Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign.”
Yet on Friday, when asked by Politico‘s Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer if she had ever met with Krislyak, Pelosi replied, “Not with this Russian ambassador, no.” But after a file photo from Pelosi’s 2010 meeting with Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev was released, revealing Krislyak at the table across from Pelosi, Pelosi spokeman Drew Hammill amended Pelosi’s claim, saying she meant she never had a solo meeting with Krislyak. He said, “Of course, that’s what she meant. She has never had a private one-on-one with him.”
On Thursday, Sessions recused himself from involvement in any Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations related to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.