Trump backs underfire Sessions
‘HONEST MAN’ US president accuses Democrats of ‘witch hunt’ amid calls for attorney general to quit
WASHINGTON:US President Donald Trump accused Democrats late on Thursday of conducting a “witch hunt” against attorney general Jeff Sessions over contacts with Russia, as the veteran senator recused himself from any probe into the election campaign.
Sessions’ announcement came as top Democrats called for him to resign after it emerged he had met with Russia’s ambassador during the presidential election campaign, as the White House moved to forestall a snowballing controversy over its ties to Moscow. Sessions denied any impropriety or that he lied about those encounters in his Senate confirmation hearing.
The attorney general told his confirmation hearing in January that he “did not have communications with the Russians” and did not know of any by other campaign staff. Sessions on Thursday clarified that his denial referred to contacts made on behalf of the campaign. He said he met Kislyak in his capacity as a senator, and discussed mainly global politics with him.
Trump declared his “total” confidence in Sessions — while adding that he “wasn’t aware” of contacts between ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Sessions, who was a senator actively supporting Trump’s campaign at the time. He defended Sessions again in a statement, calling Sessions an “honest man” and accusing Democrats of carrying out “a total witch hunt!”
Sessions “did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional.”
Unswayed by Sessions’s account of events, top Democrats are maintaining their calls for him to step down immediately, accusing him of perjury.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday decried the uproar as a replay of McCarthyism, voicing regret over the lack of any substantive dialogue with Washington.
In the 1950s, senator Joseph McCarthy led a hunt for purported communist infiltrators in the US government, often involving unfounded accusations.