Claims, its always possible that a highlevel russian defector will appear sometime in the future with documents proving that Jeff Sessions is in fact a foreign agent, perhaps of a sleeper cell sent to alabama during the cold war and activated at Vladimir Putins request during the last election, that would be a game changer. Otherwise the russian conspiracy seemed to hit a culdesac this afternoon in the senate, but that doesnt mean there are no scandals for congress to investigate. Maybe the biggest one about, our Intel Services are corrupt and politicized and theyre making very hard to run u. S. Governmen government. They are running it themselves to some extent. Consider how much of American Politics now revolves around information that has been strategically, often misleadingly and illegally released for political effects. If the hearing he watched today are just one example. They took place in part because former fbi director jim comey told senators last week that sessions may have met Russian Ambassador kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel in washington
patrick mullen. Now that sessions is finally testify, has his view changed, he joins us now, thanks for coming on. I dont expect you to agree with the Attorney Generals policies or his core beliefs as a senator, but i think we can both agree that when the former fbi director comes into open testimony and suggests as he did that sessions had some sort of untoward ties to russia or had done Something Wrong that he couldnt expand publicly and therefore had to recuse himself from the investigation, thats impugning a mans character without being specific, therefore unfair and its awful to do that. I think you are putting a little bit of a spin on it, you said the Attorney General did recuse himself because of his conflicts in the area so thats all the fbi director was saying. He actually said the opposite. Excuse me, i appreciate that there was a bit of an error left there of impropriety and i agree with you is what im trying to say. We went there were other reasons, i think im quoting,
there are other reasons but i cant say what they were in public. He goes Behind Closed Doors with senators and says we believe he may have met with the Russian Ambassadors for a third time. Thats exactly what you dont want the guardians of your National Intelligence to do, use it for unfair reasons for political gain. Congressman maloney you wouldnt have said that tucker im not sure i know what you mean. I would always say that its wrong for intelligence offers, or people whose job it is to hold the sequels atomic secrets, to use them against others for political gain. Congressman maloney are you saying we had preferred we would never have known about the Watergate Scandal . Tucker i would say i wish their careers and jobs wouldnt be destroyed. Congressman maloney a lot of white house aides went to jail. Thats exactly the point im making. The point im making is, saying that Jeff Sessions had done something improper with russia, there were specific he testifies
openly today and at the end of it, are you convinced hes not a russian agent . Congressman maloney im actually not that concerned with what Jeff Sessions did. I think youre making a fair point that he has come in for a lot of suggestions for inappropriate activity for the russians without a lot of proof. There is a mountain of evidence that people like Michael Flynn and Palmetto Fork were getting paid improperly, lied about it. Tucker paid improperly by the russians . Congressman maloney as a matter of fact, exactly that. Michael flynn has admitted to taking Tens Of Thousands of dollars for a speech in moscow, Didnt Disclose it. As a former Military Officer he was required to. Didnt get permission, lied about it on his forms and did the same thing with his interactions with kislyak. Thats almost certainly a crime and im very concerned, im very concerned that we not muddy up the two things. Tucker Jeff Sessions the Attorney General of the United States just testified all afternoon, mike flynn didnt. Im talking about the sittingAttorney General who has been the subject of these implications that he is somehow betraying his country. Congressman maloney when you take these positions, sometimes you take some hits and the fact is that the last time he testified, he testified falsely under oath. Thats not in dispute, he testified falsely about a meeting with the Russian Ambassador kislyak, who we know is the chief spymaster here in the u. S. Tucker hold on, if you are going to stipulate it, lets be clear, it is in dispute in his position as i was not acting, he was asked by the senator of minnesota, or you acting in a surrogate position, he wasnt. Are you suggesting he was having an proper contract with the russians . Congressman maloney excuse me, i did not say that, i said he testified falsely and he admitted such later when he went out and sought to amend his remarks. He also failed to correct that testimony for months. Tucker i dont think he admitted that he testified falsely. I spoke about it on the side. What is this about . Its about the implication that hes working for the russians. What is that . Congressman maloney the fact is that he testified falsely and that raised some questions, thats what we want to hear them. Tucker theres a couple other points, lets talk about those. One, he recused himself from the russia investigation, the president of the United States said that the firing of the fbi was at least in part or related to that investigation, theres a lot of legitimate questions about why Jeff Sessions was involved in t. Thats also why tucker not my job to defend Jeff Sessions, but it is nonsensical to say that the head of the Justice Department oversees the director of the fbi cant supervise because of the rest of russian investigation. Congressman maloney he should be recused from a conversation about firing that individual because of that investigation. Thats the point. Tucker i think everyone would agree there are multiple reasons jim comey was prior. The president gave us a number of them and one of them was his conduct more generally, his conduct earlier, but the point is Jeff Sessions runs the Justice Department, are you saying he shouldnt be involved . Congressman maloney i think what we understand is that Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions gave reasons why jim comey might be at dismissed, i happen to agree with those in terms of his conduct in the last campaign. It was the president was that i was thinking about russia. Thats the point, if the firing is about russia and sessions is recused from russia, he should not be involved in the firing, not stomach its Pretty Simple stuff. Tucker if not actually simple in any way, youre making it so because it makes a clearer political hit. If you may agree or disagree with some of them, but its not just about russia. The guy runs the Justice Department, you dont want them to, you didnt support it first place, get it, but it government democrats didnt win the presidency so you cant make that choice. The idea that he cant run the agency hes in charge of we do i didnt say that. Tucker what are you
saying . Congressman maloney he can absolutely when the agency for as long as the president wants them to, but he should not be involved with russia. The firing was about russia. Tucker would it be a little easier if you disagree with the the Trump Administrats policies on various things to just explain why you disagree with those rather than try to derail the whole Executive Branch of government with an insane merger conspiracy. Can we just admit Jeff Sessions was not working on behalf of the russians, hes a patriotic american just like you are and we will drop the innuendo in the mccarthy tactics because its counterproductive. Congressman maloney what we know that all all of the people we pay to do this tell us that we face an unprecedented attack by a hostile power. Some of the stomach us want to know what they found that was. In the last few days we learned that they found 39 states. Thats on top of what we knew if they did. I thought the Jeff Sessions was a senator from alabama and donald trump was a president ial candidate when that happened. Barack obama was the president when that happened. You are conflating things. The truth is Jeff Sessions had nothing to do with russia hacking various Computer Systems and theres no evidence to suggest otherwise, so why continue the charade . Congressman maloney what we know is that the russians were laser focused on lifting sanctions against the regime. They were successful in having Republican Party platform change, we dont know how or why. Let me finish, excuse me. Tucker you dont know that. Congressman maloney they did change the platform, we dont know why. Tucker was kislyak there . I didnt see any russians. Congressman maloney excuse me, we know the platform was changed. Tucker or the russians in the meeting . The two i didnt say that, i said we should find out why it was changed. Tucker you just said that russia was white changed the republican platform. Congressman maloney i wouldnt make that allegation, but we ought to get to the bottom of it. Tucker [laughs] im against sanctions on russia, does that make me Congressman Maloney you dont care about the invasion of
crimea or ukraine . Spent i have a legitimate policy disagreement. Mis by . Congressman maloney you are not a spy. Congressman maloney it is a mystery why they change that platform. Theres a larger point that you i think were addressing. Let me finish, the fact is that if the russians engaged in this attack, we should find out why. We should do it in a way thats fair and gets to the facts. Tucker he is allowed to do his work, youre implying that the russians were somehow in charge of the Republican Party platform, that they had an influence on the positions of the candidate for the campaign. Congressman maloney can i ask you a question . Does it bother you that the Administration Officials are refusing to answer without invoking Executive Privilege in front of the United StatesSenate Committee . Tucker it depends what. I always want to know information rather than less. I do think, think its fair for Government Officials in any administration to say its privileged information. Thats exactly right. Congressman maloney on
what basis tucker he can say look, theres no National Interest at stake, theres no reason, i dont want to divulge what i said to the president and if it comes down to it we will invoke Executive Privilege, you can debate that, i dont have strong feelings about it. If what i have strong feelings about is that democrats are trying to win a political argument by impeding the character of people. Congressman maloney these committees are chaired by republicans, you understand that . Both committees. Tucker im aware. I literally dont care. People like you are leading and innuendobased charged against her political opponent. Congressman maloney youre talking about Senator Mccain and senator burke. Tucker fair at fault for letting this Congressman Maloneyocrats, ws distinguished that. You were outraged on this network in 2012 when the fact that the committee was not allowed to get information. Tucker i dont remember my outrage at the time. Congressman maloney its a difficult thing. Luckily, we looked it up. Tucker [laughs]
, you got me there i was in moscow taking orders, getting my payment. Congressman maloney why are you not outrage . Tucker [laughs] i dont know i dont know what youre talking about we interviewed sessions three months ago on march 2nd. He was entirely forthcoming or seem to be, but the nature of his meetings with kislyak during the rnc in cleveland. According to news reports we will met twice with the Russian Ambassador in person and had one Phone Conversation with him, is that the extent of your contact with them, those three . A. G. Sessions i dont remember whether i had a Phone Conversation with him or not. I spoke with the Republican Convention at a conference with some 50 ambassadors. After i spoke i walked down from the podium and i mingled with a number of people and we met at that occasion and have a chat. Otherwise i left shortly thereafter. Thats the only two times i recall having met him, perhaps i
have. Im on the Armed Services committee and sometimes you meet people like that, but i dont recall having met anyone, having met in any other time. Tucker why do you think the Russian Ambassador wanted to meet with you a couple times . What was their objective . A. G. Sessions i met with him after i spoke and we chatted on the floor of this meeting and then he called to meet with me, i literally met with 25 ambassadors during this period of time. Many of them were attempting to sell their country, assert the issues that they thought were important to their Public Safety and their issues that they felt were necessary for them and i would just listen, frankly. Very little occurred in those meetings, but i kind of enjoyed them, it was a good experience. Tucker it made sense. In the months since, how much of
what he said has proved to be untrue. None of it that we have seen, it sessions admitted there could be a short encounter he may have forgotten about, again we ask, why did the senate pull this off in the first place, why did this hearing happen . For the answer to that question we go to really our favorite person to ask these questions of that is brit hume, our chief political correspondent. Whats the point of this . I think the point was to give sessions a chance to clear his name, which had been dragged through the mud over a period of months now by various leaks and suggestions and innuendos including the most recent bash from james, himself, who by the way it did not have a good day today. I think this is a hearing that should not have needed to be held, but it was. So that sessions by the way, meeting appearing before a group of men and women who know him very well and have known him, most of them, for many years and know that he has
basically a decent and honorable man of whom it would be almost absurd to imagine that he would be, colluding with the russians on anything. He was a conservative senator from alabama. The absurdity on the face of it hasnt mattered. Tucker he was tough on russia when it actually mattered, holding half the world hostage. Brit there was never any real evidence that he colluded. But we ended up talking about was meetings with the Russian Ambassador. Its possible to think of things more commonplace in washington than officials and members of Congress Meeting with the Russian Ambassador, but its not that easy. Tucker [laughs] brit this man and his predecessors have been around town for years, they meet with all kinds of people. The last time i was in the Senate Dining room was some years ago, the Russian Ambassador was in there having lunch with diane feinstein, i never gave it a step, second part, and why would i, such meetings happen all the time. Tucker [laughs] brit your previous guess was referring to the ambassador of the chief spymaster. Tucker [laughs] the chief lunchhaver what i object to is the discrimination of policy differences. There are reasons to be against them, you are somehow bidding of Vladimir Putin. Can you have a disagreement without being accused of treason . Brit of course you can. The people were raising these accusations dont really think anybody has committed treason. Youre looking for ways to bring down donald trump and get out the people around him, thats what this is about and what its been about from the start. To them his election is unthinkable, a catastrophe for our nations. This cannot be allowed to proceed and they are trying everything they can and this idea that the russians colluded and somehow perhaps even arranged to elect donald trump has been a piece of it for a long time. Of the problem has been from the beginning, no evidence. Evidence of russian attempts to intervene in the election,