Himself for possible investigation. He was saying he survived this, but we did see gop lawmakers say that Jeff Sessions should recuse himself. Let me ask you this. How much of a wedge will this drive between the white house and the gop . Do you see that down the road . It has potential to. This is scandal after scandal. Russia, we need a full independent investigation as to what degree russia was involved in influencing or attempting to influence our elections here in the United States. They are doing it in france and Around The World and have been doing it for a long time. Its shocking that republicans would be refusing to investigate that. I dont care if its a democrat or republican. When a foreign power is attempting to influence our elections. I want you to to followup on shawn a point. Jeff sessions made a mistake and
owned up to it. Nothing to see here. It is not a mistake. This is a man who has been live and breathing and speaking the language of law since he graduated in 1979. Before this hearing when the senator asked the question, he knew how important it was to all of us. He knew his answer had to be complete and full and accurate. There are different lies. There is lies where i know the truth and i utter a false statement and try to pass it along as the truth. There is a lie where i fail to fully state the facts. I omit very important facts and thats what he did. He knew that he needs to tell the Senate Confirmation committee that he did have communications with russia and that would have opened up a line of questioning as to what were those and when were those and not much. Why dont they say this is who met with whom and this is what was discussed . You know what, i dont object to that. Thats a good question. Really, its not very important. Waiting patiently to be part of this. We are learning for a senior official from the white house saying that the National Security adviser Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner med with the Russian Ambassador and usa today reporting two other Trump Campaign senior staff met with this Russian Ambassador on the sidelines of the Republican Convention last year. Who is this russian diplomat who has access to Senior Republicans . He is a very experienced diplomat. He has been in the diplomatic core for a long time since the
more and more little tiny drips and drops of information which is keeping him from what he wants to do. We already have investigations going on by the fbi and the cia and other Intelligence Agencies in the United States about hacking, etc. And the more information that comes out about this, we may find that it was part of doing business. Part of it may be exactly that. Right now it looks suspicious and there are no firm answers. And speaks of no firm answers, what do you make of the way russia is keeping statements to a minimum in terms of what is playing out in the United States . Are you surprised by how the kremlin is handling this . Im actually thinking they are thinking why did we ever get involved in anything to deal with this campaign because right now its a mess. The only way i think for russia, there is a good side. You can see look at all of The Americans and the chaos they have in their political system and dont think about trying to imitate their form of democracy. Russians can have that as a positive side, but right now the relationship i think you can almost say is worse than ever. You have investigations going on into alleged russian hacking. You have the representative for donald trump who was talking about having better relations and his ambassador to the United Nations is very critical of russia. You have Senior Administration officials on the nsc critical of russia. This is not looking very good. Its not the scenario i think moscow was hoping for and it probably is smart for them to
sit back and say lets stay out of this before they figure it out. I want to get back to you because sessions denied it was discussed and he walked that back. Listen to this. Most of these ambassadors are gossipy and in campaign season. I dont recall any specific political discussions. So it does seem he is leaving open the possibility this is for sarah actually. That maybe the campaign was in fact discussed. Is there enough to make a Criminal Investigation . Its interesting because he uses his choice of words are very interesting. I dont recall. I dont believe i did. He is leaving room to if its proven that he did have this conversation along these lines, nobody can say you blatantly
lied. The difficulty, john, in prosecuting these cases and back to your question about the fbi, there has to be willfulness that is proven and much like mr. Sessions is doing right now, the person can give a different explanation for what they meant. Maybe they misunderstood the question and didnt fully explain themselves and had they put it in full context it would make better sense. The problem with perjury is that. There has to be a willful false statement made. Its not enough that its just false. Thats the issue i have. This is somebody who is very knowledgeable. He knows why they are asking him this question. He not only lied about it under oath, but in the questionnaire for the Senate Confirmation committee as well. Now back to the gentlemen who was talking about immediately recused himself, i disagree. I dont know how much longer he
wanted to stay on board. There was tremendous pressure from his own people and the Republican Party and the Democratic Party for him to recuse himself. More thing. We had Attorney General who is recuse said themselves, but its because of appearance of a closeness to the conflict or the wrongdoing. He himself is involved in this. I want to come back to shawn for a final thought as we go to break. Ethan, the pressure is mounting whether you like it or not. Republicans are pushing him for this recusal and democrats want him to resign. You know you are in trouble when the defense is lukewarm. You have about six democratic senators, the most extreme called for an out right dismissal. No, there is 100 congressional democrats. I saw about three hours ago. Maybe it expanded to another 90, but they dont have that many senators. Not a single republican called for dismissal. This was not about Jeff Sessions. This is about the mainstream medias war. The Democrat Party is feeble. Its mainstream medias war against trump. We have to hold our elected and appointed officials accountable. If you lie, the top law person in the United States of america, you need to be held to account. We will leave it there. And we will come back. She used to be in moscow. Hence the expertise. We appreciate it. All of you stay with us and we will keep the conversation going. When we come back, did Jeff Sessions commit perjury . The legal ramifications and the russian revelations that led to
his recusal. Mike pence reportedly used personal email, an account that was later hacked. Stay with us. An unlimited data plan is only as good as the network its on. And verizon has been ranked number one for the 7th time in a row by rootmetrics. man hey, uh, whats rootmetrics . Its the nations largest independent study and it ranked verizon 1 in call, text, data, speed and reliability. woman do they get a trophy . Not that i know of. But you get unlimited done right. man 2 why dont they get a trophy . man 3 they should get something. woman 2 how about a plaque . I have to drop this. My arms getting really tired. Unlimited on verizon. 4 lines, just 45 per line. Campaign and its contacts with russia. That decision came after sessions admitted he did not disclose conversations he had during the president ial Campaign Even though he was asked about it. Top democrats said he should resign or be charged with perjury. The notion that you have somebody at the head of the Justice Department that is what he is and saying he is digging in his heels and recusing himself. He is going to go to time out room in elementary school. The analogy is not to be funny. Its to put the seriousness where it needs to be. We have an Attorney General basically being exposed for having lied to the American People while under oath. Thats perjury and an offense that somebody ought to charge him for. Lets bring in one here. Also joining us is our civil rights attorney. A lot of questions right now. Should Jeff Sessions face charges of perjury for that moment in the session that when al franken asked this question. If there is evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump Campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do . Senator franken, im not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians. Im unable to comment on it. I know that you are well aware of the law, but the Supreme Court said it must be false testimony rather than confusion, mistake or faulty memory. How would you prove willful
intent. That was not intentionally making a false statement. Thats the problem with the case. He thinks its okay to say i didnt intentionally lead the American People. The real issue is its not his decision to make. This should be fully investigated and there were other people in the room when these conversations took place. He said i dont remember and I Dont Recall which is should be given that he told the detailed story about talking to the ambassador about taking a trip there and how the a. M. Bagsz dor said he could remember specifics about that part of the conversation, but has no wkz did whether he discussed the campaign. Lets investigate the people in the room. There is lots that can be done. Is that automatically the case . It has to be material and willfully false. Can you say he answered the question. The way perjury works is you look at the question. Its the questioners responsibility to prove up the perjury. When he makes a statement to the question and it was vague and we dont know. We have this debate. Did he mean no he was not part of the campaign or no he was not with the senator. You are never going to prove that. I can tell you that. Unless the statement is clear, you are never going to prove perjury. It is a false misleading statement for those trying to make a claim to do it for other purposes other than the truth. To prove perjury is a high standard. They are not going to get close to it. You have eric holder who made false statements in front of the senate and what happens with him . He was sensored. They found they were false and still didnt prosecute him. We are not even close to that. He implied he was surprised by the question coming from Senator Franken. I was taken aback about the brandnew information, the allegation that surrogates and i have been called a surrogate have been meeting continuously with russian officials and thats what struck me very hard and i focused my answer on. In retrospect, i should have slowed down and said but i did meet one russian official a couple of times and that would be the ambassador. That was the cool part of his defense. He was focusing on the wrong part of the question. And the parsing of his person. That was for me as a senator and
not being a surrogate. Thats the part of what he wants the American People to believe. That he can divide himself. Whats troubling to me is this is at the height of a lot of news Media Attention around the prospects that russia was involved in Cyber Attacks and they were hacking the dnc and causing donald trump to win the election. Here you have a senator who must be aware of all of this action sift happening. When the question is asked, he teant make the connection . At best we have an Attorney General who seems unfit to serve. If he didnt recognize the importance of what was going on around the nation of russia and having the conversation with someone and he Doesnt Recall the details . You are shaking your head. She uses the word cluding. What Senator Franken was returning to was a buzz feed article. That was published by a few agencies. Completely false. Once again, he is given a question of made up news and fake news and asked to respond why when he was reading it. This was all new and coming in. Hang with me. Basically i was not doing anything. He is not made of that. He admitted he med with the ambassador. You can talk about the article being false. The reality is he had the meetings. Not having the meetings. This was not true. He did not deny having the meetings. He did not state under oath he met two times. He was not asked that. You can parse it, but he himself admitted he should have given a more truthful response. When you start saying things like this of not giving a
truthful response and you look at the question, you cant take it there. You look at the question and say the answer was responsive. It was true. Did he have talks with the russians about the campaign . He didnt. If they find evidence that he did we dont know that. He said he Doesnt Recall. You cannot say he did not talk about it. You cant say that there is no evidence. We have to go to a break. Republicans had at Hillary Clinton for private email campaign and now the Vice President may be caught up in his own email scandal. Rianne g. I became curious where in africa she was from. So i took the ancestry dna test to find out more about my african roots. Ancestry really helped me fill in a lot of details. So you dont miss his first birthday. Tickets, i need to see your tickets sir. I masterpassed it. Feeling like father of the year priceless masterpass, the secure way to pay from your bank dont just buy it. Masterpass it. Music Pla Throughout announcer get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. crowd cheers that 100k is not exactly a fortune. Well, a 103
how long did it take you two to save that . A long time. Then its a fortune. I told you we had a fortune. Get closer to your Investment Goals with a conversation. Michael flynn also met with the Russian Ambassador at trump tower in december. It was evaporated Vice President mike pence used a private email account for official business when he was governor of indiana. According to the star newspaper, pences personal email was hacked last june. Lets bring in trump supporter jean louden. If you look at whats happening with the Administration LikeMichael Flynn who was forced to resign because he lied and Jeff Sessions and pence and his emails, there is rolling disclosures they are making admissions only after it is being revealed to the public. Is there a bigger issue than a rookie administration finding its feet . The Biggest Issue for the administration is they are paralyzed. They have several issues they
want to get to. Tax reform and infrastructure and health care, but just remember when bill clinton had his scandal in 1997. It was difficult for them to do anything at this point. You are looking at trump with this drip, drip, drip of disclosures and aside from executive orders, they are not able to do anything. Chaos on capitol hill. This is affecting the administration not enabling them to do anything with their agenda. Why does the white house appear to be having trouble getting on the same page in moments of crisis . I do think they are a new administration, but they are on the same page. You look at the timing of this socalled drip drip which we know is emanating from the house of obama where he is there in his 5 million castle with 8,000 square feet with Valerie Jarrett constantly firing missiles at
the Trump Administration trying to disable them. I wonder where the talk went about unity. I wonder where the talk went about the little guy. Thats not the concern about obama and jarrett and the rest of those trying to do everything they can to make it so no progress is made. There is division and there is not unity. It would be nice to see them ever working in any manner with some of the things that the president mentioned in his speech like Victims Rights and clean air and water. These are things we can find Common Ground on and it would be nice if the democrats instead of trying to undermine this administration at every turn and spread disinformation to work with him. Let me jump in on that one. So on that one, if donald trump wanted to, he could have a Press Conference and say here are the meetings who the people who worked with me had with russian officials. These types have happened
before. Trump chooses not to do