Today. His testimony today in front of his former Senate Colleagues was at times heated and combative, at times tedious and deeply unsatisfying. Jeff sessions vehemently denied that he colluded with russia and with voices raised at one point, he and oregon democrat ron wyden sparred over something that james comey had just said about sessions while under oath himself last week. The suggestion that i participated in any collusion, that i was aware of any collusion with the russian government to hurt this country, which i have served with honor for 35 years or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process is an appalling and detestable lie. I recused myself from any investigation into the campaign for president , but i did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegation. General sessions, respectfully youre not answering the question. Well, what is the question . The question is, mr. Comey said that there were matters with respect to the recusal t
Consideration to unilaterally rescind the conventions. He says he received several panicky calls from u. S. Government officials who told them they had been directed to develop a sanctions lifting package and imploring him please my god, cant you stop this. It was apparently stopped in large part thanks to pushback from veterans at the state department. But there is a Michael Flynn connection here, too, as Michael Isikoff told chris hayes earlier tonight. February 13th, Michael Flynn resigns. He resigns because of the blowup about his secret meetings with kislyak and misrepresenting the fact that he was talking about easing sanctions. On this issue. On this very issue. So it became politically toxic. I talked to a senior white house official today about this, making clear there is still an ongoing policy review about sanctions. Right. These options are still on table. The state department veteran named in that report, dan freed, also appeared on this Network Earlier tonight. A number o
Move to ease russian sanctions right from the start. The 11th hour begins now. Good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. Day 133 of the still young Trump Administration, and the president today stunned many people around the globe, announcing americas withdrawal from the paris climate accords. We will cover that in depth in just a moment. We begin with yet another new report out tonight on this white house and russia. Washbased investigative journalist michael i could have been acknowledged and outlines President Trumps plan to ease sanctions on russia. It is a plan that reportedly fell short. I could have been says, there was quote there was serious he says he received several panicky calls from u. S. Government officials who told them they had been directed to develop a sanctions lifting package and imploring him please my god, cant you stop this. It was apparently stopped in large part thanks to pushback from veterans at the state department. But there is a Mic
We dont know how this is going to work out. Watch this space. That does it for us tonight. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. Good evening, rachel. I watched the beginning of your show tonight after that cliffhanger that you left last night. Theres so much to talk about in it, but the basic lesson seems to be that the people who are telling us that its all fake news might want to actually produce, deliver some fake news that they can therefore point to as proof that its all fake news. Yeah. I dont know who i mean i dont want to speak to the origin of this thing, this forgery that we were shopped. I think the bottom line is we all need to do Due Diligence all the time. But it is worth being aware that somewhere, for some reason and we dont know what that reason is somebody is shopping pretty good forgeries of what appear to be nsa documents about trump and russia. And so its just i felt like its kind of a weird thing to do a news story about,
Start ig digging right into it and hoping this will lead to more discussions, more followon, and a tighter relationship. Interesting. Richard engel, thank you very much. Absolutely. I am ari melber live in new york for lawrence odonnell. Now for months, people have been watching to see if donald trump would pivot. Today it happened. President putin and i have been discussing various things, and i think its going very well. Weve learned the president did, in fact, confront putin for meddling in the u. S. Election. They had a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject. Sergey lavrov coming out and saying that President Trump accepted putins denial. Translator he accepts the things that mr. Putin has said. One Administration Source is telling me that is not accurate. Bear in mind that unless it was tillerson himself, that person was not even in the room. Just yesterday, President Trump cast doubt on the allegations regarding russia. Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure.