New York Post

Channeling Joe McCarthy

-

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from any investigat­ion involving last fall’s election is prudent — but it won’t satisfy the Democrats now channeling the ghost of Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Back in the ’50s, the Wisconsin senator was famously accused of seeing a Russian under every bed. And now Democrats seem to be conducting the same kind of “witch hunt” as his investigat­ions of Soviet infiltrati­on of the US government.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others are demanding Sessions’ resignatio­n over the news that he met twice with Moscow’s ambassador last year.

Some Democrats say the meetings themselves compromise­d Sessions — even though senators meet with foreign ambassador­s all the time, and Sessions was a member of the Armed Services Committee to boot.

In a bizarre sideshow, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) tried to pile on Sessions Thursday, saying she’d never had a call or meeting with the Russian ambassador in her 10 years on Armed Services. Oops: Her own Twitter feed shows at least one call and one face-to-face in the last four years.

Driving it all is the fevered far-left theory that a Russia/Trump-campaign conspiracy stole the election from Hillary Clinton — though few Democrats admit that as they rail over the supposed horrors of any associatio­n with the Russians.

Now Schumer says the problem is that Sessions, under oath, denied any meetings. In fact, it’s clear from the actual Q&A that he was speaking about representa­tives of the Trump campaign — while his meetings were solely in his role on Armed Services. (Sessions now admits he should have mentioned them anyway.)

Of course, Democrats don’t just want Sessions’ head: They’re also calling for a special prosecutor — which would guarantee a years-long partisan probe. (Think the Valerie Plame case.)

When it comes to investigat­ing the election, we’re with Sen. Marco Rubio, who says there should be no “cover-up” — but no “witch hunt” either. No matter how shrill the Democrats’ McCarthyis­m.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States