I’m not going to recap the whole sordid Senate Intelligence Committee hearing featuring Attorney General and KKKeebler Elf Jeff Sessions. If you were following me on Twitter, I was live-tweeting the whole experience, as were many other people. Sessions was indignant from the get-go, with his opening statement full of inaccuracies, if not outright lies, about how he came to perjure himself repeatedly. His story kept changing throughout the hearing too, because he couldn’t keep track of all the lies he told, especially about the Mayflower Hotel and that possible, alleged “encounter” with Sergey Kislyak. But mostly, Sessions just obfuscated and tried to “I don’t recall” his way out of tough questions. You can read a thorough piece about his testimony here. My personal highlights: scurralliss, I don’t recall, encounter at the Mayflower, Senator Mustache being awesome and Sessions generally looking like he needed a fainting couch and some smelling salts. So, what next? I’m glad you asked.
Portrait of an incurious lawyer. Jeff Sessions is many things – a racist, a jackass, a sellout to corporate and Russian interests – but he is also dangerously incurious. So is Donald Trump. Sessions has been Attorney General for nearly five full months and as his testimony revealed yesterday, he’s never ONCE asked for any kind of briefing on how the Russians interfered with the 2016 election. Trump is the same way – even if you can go the distance and claim that Trump had no direct knowledge of the extent of the Russian interference to ensure that he would win the election, the fact that Trump has said and done nothing about the established facts of the Russian interference (now that he’s president) says a lot about everything.
Stonewalling. Senator Ron Wyden got Sessions all riled up!
Will Trump fire Bob Mueller? That’s been the rumor since the weekend. Sessions was asked about it and he didn’t give a clear answer. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about firing Mueller and she said: “While the president has the right to, he has no intention to do so.” Reportedly, Trump has floated the idea with senior staff and they’ve all insisted that he should not fire Mueller.
Meanwhile, healthcare. Republicans were happy to have the focus on gremlin Jeff Sessions because it meant that for one more day, the focus wasn’t on their efforts to push through a healthcare bill in the Senate. Thirteen white male senators are behind closed doors, working hard on a bill that would likely throw millions of Americans off their health care coverage. Meanwhile, Trump complained to the Senate, telling them the House healthcare bill was/is “mean.” But Trump held that big Rose Garden thing when the House passed it? Huh.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I will just repost what I wrote halfway into the hearing yesterday. It still applies.
“SusanneToo says:
June 13, 2017 at 3:44 pm
The hearing so far: the Dems know he’s lying every time his lips flap and are disgusted, the Rethugs pitch softballs like “What Comey said didn’t really happen, did it, jeffy, say it didn’t, now.”
It was appalling. Blunt and Cotton made my blood boil. Sessions is garbage and his righteous indignation made me want to throw my TV out the window.
THIS. A thousand times this.
I only watched a bit but you could see that he wasn’t honest. Even under oath these idiots keep lying.
I mean… how does ANYONE (republican or democrat) take him seriously, or think he’s at all honest, when he just sits there and smirks like the happiest little racist, perjuring, Russian-operating elf in the tree? That stupid f*cking smirk was present throughout the entire hearing and it completely gave him away.
Let’s get real here. Why do most reps of the POTEC strongly resemble the main villains from Star Trek, Star Wars, the Hobbit and or Harry Potter? We have voldemere, a few Jabba the Hutts, and yesterday’s Gollum. Coincidence??
(POTEC = president of the electoral college)
I mean he lied and we knew he was going to. Also if you “cannot recall” that many details you need a physical and mental health wellness check. You seem incompetent.
Also I’m here for Harris handing white men their asses daily. She should run for POTUS.
In all fairness, it was hard for him to recall anything with all those Republican lips planted on his ass.
Harris was amazing. We really need more of her and Liz Warren and Sally Yates to continue to shine a light on just how spineless and mendacious these congressmen are.
Kamala Harris 2020!!
I love Kamala. She intimidates some of those guys so they get a little beside themselves around her. They have to assert their masculinity around her.
Dear Lord, I love that woman!
Yes. The biggest headline from yesterday is the total lack of interest on the part of the administration about Russia’s attack on our election!!
That made my blood boil. Even if there was not collusion (which hello of course there was) where’s their indignation of our country being attacked by Russia??? They get more up in arms over “the leakers”. It’s mind boggling.
Do you know something the FBI does not? Comey said there was no collusion. I’m sure Russia tried to influence the US elections, but so does the US in other countries. Don’t state lies that were contradicted by Comey , himself, since he’s the arbiter of all things truth now.
Anon- Comey didn’t say there was no collusion. That’s the whole point of the investigation – establishing whether or not there was and how extensive it was.
Comey did say that Trump himself was not the target of an investigation at the exact moment he was asked that by Trump. He did not say that the situation has not changed now.
I would be surprised if Trump wasn’t a target now because of the attempts he has made to shut down the investigation. But Comey said one reason he refused to make an public statement when Trump asked was because then he would have to make a public statement once that situation changed and Trump was indeed a subject of investigation, which for obvious reasons he did not want to do.
I think Trump has reason to worry. He’s hiding something and so is his campaign staff, including Sessions. There is no reason to so consistently lie about contacts and have such sieve-like memories otherwise.
Completely apart from the whole Russia thing, Sessions did himself no favors. His performance raised legitimate questions as to whether he is fit for the Office of Attorney General based upon his deficient memory.
The GOP are never going to put heat on him. For the rest of us, it’s yet another thing on the list of Trump is a Horrible President and his Administration is The Worst.
This was so frustrating! “I can’t remember” “I can’t recall”! He wasn’t being asked about things from years ago, these are things from a few months ago. If he has such bad memory, he shouldn’t have this job. Time for him and John McCain to retire. Dangerous to have such forgetful guys in the government.
actually he was asked about things from years ago several times, and could answer those questions with great detail, which is even more telling.
I think all politicians are savvy and sneaky to some degree. So I don’t get the ones who had careers already and weren’t savvy enough to politely decline trump. They were smart enough to stay in the game for all those years but not smart enough to see the huge risk of joining trump. Now they are forever tainted, and probably unemployed after. Or will they work on Fox News?
They’ll be lobbyists. Somebody will take their corrupt, sorry asses.
Always remember. Sessions had an audience of ONE!!!
I think he chose his words to deceive. “I did not talk to him at the Mayfower” but we did meet in his hotel room for 3 hours. “I did not talk about the campaign” but I talked a lot about Russian sanctions. Etc..
Have you read his views on medical marijuana? It’s like in his head it is 1950.
His testimony happened pretty much as I expected it to-lazy, uninvolved and evasive. This is why the idea of 45 volunteering to testifying is laughable- none of these people give a damn about lying under oath.
And frankly, the fact that McCain (who yet AGAIN has exposed himself as two faced trash) and other senators were more concerned about Kamala Harris asking Sessions in a way that made him feel “nervous” when she was trying to get actual answers out of him, tells me that they’re not anywhere near as concerned about him as they should be. It was a pathetic joke.
And now the table has been set to fire Mueller one way or another. Rosenstein says he won’t do it it unless there is good cause-so either good cause will suddenly appear (be manufactured) or 45 will just can him and work his way down the list until he finds someone to do the job. Precedent was already set with Nixon and 45 has proven he has even less integrity than that.
After Lyin’ KKKeebler Elf lied his lying ass off under oath, I think Drumpf will fire him.
Also, Heinrich (spelling ???) made Mr. Rice and I howl with laughter because he made the Elf sound stupid.
When people avoid answering questions like he did, it couldn’t be more obvious he’s lying and has something to hide.
Today is Trumps birthday. I hope it’s the worst he’s ever had
He’s wondering how many of his Russian convos the FBI/CIA has on tape.
He’ll probably play a round of golf and have his best score ever. That will totally make his day.
Maybe a few birthday cakes after
I had to applaud the Dems for at least trying to keep his feet to the fire. Kamala Harris was the best. Warner too. And then the Republicans did what we knew they would do; NOTHING and you could hear it before each question. The excuses and a**kissing. Sessions was relieved when it was there turn. You could see his eyes. He is just like Trump. LIARS. Swearing to tell the truth means nothing to these men. And once again Party came before Country. 2018 will be the test to see how mad people are. If they don’t change things then we get what we deserve.
@nemera34 Amen to that, but to count your chickens just yet.
“He must be a South Pole elf”
Lol 😂
Coworker: Did you eat my lunch?
Me: I don’t recall that.
Coworker: And you are aware–
Me: At this moment.
What I want to know is how does an incompetent Attorney General who in charge of all of our law enforcement in the USA cannot recall anything, still has a job. Sessions was stonewalling and lying through the entire hearing. The person who has total recall on everything Mr Comey, appears truthful and articulate is out of a job and the incompetence fool Session still has a job.
There is some breaking news about a shooting in Virginia where house members were at a pickup ball game. Some 50 shot fired with someone with a rifle shot a congressman and an aid shot, story developing.
Two cops, congressman, shooter hit.
The congressman from Alabama is talking about it on TV now
Steve Scalese, majority whip shot.
Another day in our sick gun culture.
CNN reported a middle aged white male shot 5 persons at a Congressional baseball practice game. All Congressman were Republicans. They’ve confirmed one Congressman and two capitol hill police were shot.
The nutbags on twitter are doing their to-be-expected finger pointing. The nutbags who probably had no problem with Sandy Hook or Orlando.
or Portland.
Suddenly it’s the superviolent left….
Yes, just a few hours ago we were whiny snowflakes, now violent terrorists. Forget the much, much, much more prevalent right wing violence.
The only thing most Alabama politicians are curious about is what they can do to line their pockets and the pockets of their friends.
Jeffy B is devoting his time right now to finding ways to prosecute cancer patients etc. that use medical marijuana. Gotta fill up those private prisons he owns shares in, natch.
Check out Kate. McKinnon’s Sesh bit on Seth Myers last night!
Oregon voter here. YOU GO, Ron Wyden. Harris and Wyden ftw!!
I tried to watch but I couldn’t. One republucan took the time to repeat the Republican talking points and i just couldn’t
Suspect is a Bernie supporter.
So was the leaker Reality Winner. Seems pretty convenient for their argument that us lefties are violent and unpatriotic. Hmm.
I disagree with Kaiser saying that Sessions and Trump are incurious about the Russia interference. They know what happened: they or some others on the campaign team (Kushner/Flynn) colluded with Russia. They aren’t asking cause they already know they’re guilty.
Sessions took his first trip to Russia in 1991, with a church mission group. He went again in 1993, and reports show he went later that decade as well. I believe he knows lots about Russia and has many contacts that were used in the collusion. I think many American evangelicals have been wooed by the Russian Orthodox Church to partner on “shared values” that stand against multicultural, feminist, liberal society norms. Isn’t it Sessions who introduced Carter Page to Tr*mp last spring? He was very nervous. Couldn’t even make it through two hours without shrieking and sniveling. So much Russia!
Eye roll. I watched the hearings Sessions was accused of stonewalling by DEMOCRATS on the panel. No surprise there. Ideological party politics at its finest. So sad for America.
If a Democrat wouldn’t answer questions about important things like this, I’d be just as frustrated. This isn’t a game. Trump and his team are putting us in a dangerous situation and they seem to care more about keeping their jobs than they do about saving the country. So sad for America when people ONLY care about the party the person belongs to
*eyeroll* You must be joking. I guess you watched a different hearing that the rest of us and the rest of the media too then for that matter. When you have evidence of a question he actually legitimately answered, let me know.
I’ve read your comments on all of these threads and they are the best evidence of ideological party politics I’ve seen in a while. Your hypocrisy is truly laughable.
ILY and thank you.
Bo Jeffery needs a complete physical evaluation to make sure he isn’t suffering from acute dementia. Someone that forgetful needs to be in the care of medical professionals.
His eyes looked so evil when he had to answer Kamala.
You can tell when Sessions was lying because he got that evil smirk on his face or when his eyes got big. The GOP were feeding Sessions answers. What about Tom Cotton, who after having dinner with Trump last week, sat on the committee trying to sell that there is no evidence of collusion. How can anyone take Rubio and Cotton seriously when it was so obvious that they were just putting on a show for Trump and doing what Trump had Nunes and Rosenstein do?
The media and the government have to stop saying that there is no evidence of collusion because there is evidence of Trump on tv asking Russia to hack Hilary. Clint Wyatts even talked about this when he went before one of the committees to testify, he also talked about how Trump would repeat or retweet everything that the Russians had leaked and therefore acted as an agent in spreading the lies.
As for firing Muller, I can’t remember on what show it was, but they said that Trump is putting out this story about firing Muller to make him vindicate Trump in the Trump Russian investigation(conclude that his investigation shows no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians). It’s sorta like blackmailing, but instead of using compromising information, he dangles their jobs. We have seen Trump do this with Reince and Spicer. When we hear those reports about Trump trying to fire Reince or Spicer it’s because he is t
As for the concern of who is leaking to WaPo, aren’t any of the GOP at all worried about Trump’s relationship with Bob Costa from WaPo? Trump has his phone number and calls him directly. Like the time that Trump wanted everyone to know that it was his, not Ryan’s, idea to postpone the work on TrumpRyan care?
YES the crazy eyes! Also agree that Rubio and Cotton are complete hacks.
Sessions could not get even his softball questions right, he kept smiling that “Duper’s delight” smile as he could not recall, he cited not a thing, a bizarre gestalt of executive privilege and exercising the fifth amendment (neither applicable) and then said he would pass along the relevant citations from the DOJ standards and practices if he deemed it approppriate. Contempt his ass into jail, disbar him, salt the earth, ’tis time for knees and elbows.
That lying, smirking, Granny Clampett looking mother f*cker just made Kamela Harris a household name~