endorsed luther strange in the primary, luther strange lost and he endorsed roy moore. it is hard to imagine he stays betting against blankenship in the general election if he can deliver that seat to republicans. we ll have to see. and just then add this tweet into the there is a tweet for everything, let s see what happens tomorrow. great seeing you, thank you. republican in congress threatens to hold jeff sessions in contempt of congress. what does devin nunes want the attorney general to hand over and why won t sessions give it to him? we ll be right back.
praising the justice department and its employees as a top senator voices concern about what he calls president trump s relentless attacks. why won t sessions say if he ll recuse himself from the criminal probe of president trump s personal lawyer. and kremlin come pramat, as the trump administration holds back on new sanctions, new questions about what sort of compromising information or kompromat putin may have on trump. what would it take for the russian president to use it against his american counterpart. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room . announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we re following breaking news, including a exclusive new information about dozens of russian diplomats expelled from the u.s. last month. sources now tell cnn that u.s. law enforcement and intelligence
ambassadors who came and went from sessions s senate office who by the way yes he was on the senate armed services committee but if you talk to other senate republican staffers including those immersed in foreign policy and national security for years they say are you kidding me? this guy was never interested. he was never in on this stuff. he could maybe be dragged onto a bill to cosponsor it but he never really cared much so this idea that it s part his regular duties, meeting with ambassador. but the interesting thing is he has named in march of 2016 as the chairman of the trump campaign s national advisory committee. in april of 2016 he has his first meeting with an ambassador. he has no meetings, zero meetings in 2016 before he is named the chairman of the national security council of the
bank shot. but did you, as you watched this, see an attempt by sessions to set up a potential executive privilege argument by the president? it certainly sounded like he was sounding the alarms and saying, mr. president, if you re listening, this is the time to exert executive privilege. but i m not sure that s exactly what was going on. i m just wondering in response to your last question, where are the staff who are willing to talk truth to power? where are the people who are willing to stand up and say, mr. president, this is wrong. you can t have this conversation. none of them did that. and much like watergate, today we heard a lot of i don t recall, i don t remember. that s not how people talk unless they re trained to say that. that was part of the cover-up in watergate where witnesses are told, you can always say you don t recall even when you do. that s perjury to say you don t recall if you actually do. two terrific lawyers.
carry, after your time at d.o.j., who is this rule he s citing. attorney general sessions was referring to executive privilege, which is a privilege that the president can assert regarding communications with his senior advisors. so it is a long standing privilege that exists. it s legitimate. and difficult administrations across political parties always have instances where they assert this privilege, particularly when congress is asking for information. but the president didn t assert that. and what is what is sessions citing instead? that s right. so in this particular case, and