Republicans have little option but to probe Trump ties with Russia

President Donald Trump’s Russia problems just got a whole lot worse.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kisylak twice during in 2016, according to the Washington Post, conversations that run directly counter to Sessions’s assertions during his confirmation hearing to be the nation’s top cop.

In that Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on January 10, Minnesota Democratic Senator Al Franken asked Sessions whether he was aware of any contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian intelligence officials. “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians,” Sessions replied.

It does not take a political genius to understand how big a problem this is for Sessions, Trump and Congressional Republicans more broadly. (Sessions’s response — I talked to a lot people! — isn’t going to cut it.)

Prior to this report, most congressional Republicans were resistant to the idea of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the contacts between Russia and Trump campaign officials and surrogates — insisting that the ongoing FBI investigation and congressional committees already looking into the issue was more than enough.

That’s going to become an untenable position for Republicans — starting with Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — in light of this new information about Sessions. Not only is there a very serious question about whether Sessions misled — whether purposely or accidentally — his colleagues while under oath, but this is only the latest incident involving unanswered questions about the ties between Trump, his top advisers and Russia.

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lost his job last month after lying to Vice President Pence — and lots of other people — about the nature of his conversations with Kisylak. Trump has repeatedly refused to condemn President Vladimir Putin while insisting that stories about his ties to Russia are “fake news.”

In short: Where there’s smoke and smoke and smoke and smoke and smoke, most reasonable people will assume there is fire — or that there should be an independent investigation to determine whether there is fire. Arguing that “there’s nothing to see here” is simply not a tenable position for Republicans at this point.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been outspoken in raising doubts about Trump and Russia, was blunt about what needs to happen if Sessions spoke to Kisylak. “If Jeff Sessions spoke with Russian diplomat, “then for sure you need a special prosecutor,” he said.

Others will follow Graham’s lead over the next 24 or 48 hours. The details here almost certainly will force an act of political triage from GOPers. They need to find a way to wall themselves off from what is becoming more and more toxic. Otherwise, the spillage could leak all over them.