The last 48 hours have seen such a massive unraveling of major news about President Donald Trump’s connections to Russia that we, quite frankly, didn’t know where to start. You may not either. So here’s roundup of major things that broke.
First, regarding that meeting between Attorney General Jeff Sessions (then United States Senator and part of Trump’s inner circle) and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak…
#Sessions met w/ Kislyak for the 2nd time on Sept. 8. I did a LexisNexis search to see what was going on at that time. Here we go… 1/
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
Three days before #Sessions met w/Kislyak in September, Obama met w/Putin at the G20 summit. .. 2/ pic.twitter.com/AQ8fyTOOZm
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
At the G20 summit, Obama & Putin discussed sanctions that US imposed on Sept 1, which Putin said were inconsistent w/future cooperation. 3/ pic.twitter.com/OaMMcm7XzB
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
On Sept 7, Dir. of National Intelligence James Clapper publicly suggested for the first time that Russia was behind the DNC hack. 4/ pic.twitter.com/WvWKxWz9aP
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
Then, on Sept. 8 – the day of the #Sessions/Kislyak meeting – Trump told a Russian TV network he didn’t think Russia was behind the hack. 5/ pic.twitter.com/g996VI49St
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
The same day (9/8) that #Sessions met w/Kislyak, Trump suggested it would be “wonderful” if we had a relationship with Russia… 6/ pic.twitter.com/R0GskieqZ2
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
Also on the same day (9/8) that #Sessions met w/Kislyak, both Trump AND Pence heaped praise on Putin & his leadership style. 7/ pic.twitter.com/lmL8ZpfXY9
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
And (here it is), on the same day that #Sessions met w/Kislyak, Russia suddenly became optimistic about building good relations w/the US, 8/ pic.twitter.com/wGClxKeFix
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) March 2, 2017
Things aren’t looking good for Sessions’ political future.
In addition to the Russia news, it was revealed that Sessions used his own campaign travel account for his trip to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, according to The Wall Street Journal — which is where he spoke to Kislyak.
But there may be larger problems. Many of his fellow Republicans are starting to abandon him. Though they aren’t following the Democratic drumbeat calling for Sessions’ resignation, a number of Congressional Republicans are agreeing that he needed to recuse himself from any investigation into Russia (which Sessions has subsequently done). Sessions may find himself without his party’s safety net — something the GOP has so far been willing to provide the Trump administration.

Source: Salon: in-depth news, politics, business, technology & culture > Politics
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