Democrats attacking Sessions accused of a ‘witch hunt’ and McCarthyism
DONALD TRUMP has accused Democrats of conducting a “witch hunt” in their criticism of his attorney general over his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign.
His comments came as Russia decried the uproar over Jeff Sessions’ meetings with the Russian ambassador as a replay of McCarthyism and voicing regret over the lack of any substantive dialogue with Washington.
Mr Sessions has excused himself from any investigation into Russian interference in America’s 2016 presidential election after it emerged that he twice spoke with Sergey Kislyak during the campaign and failed to say so when pressed by Congress.
Some Democrats have accused him of lying and called for him to step down, but Mr Trump called Mr Sessions “an honest man” who did nothing wrong.
The president said Mr Sessions “could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional”.
He claimed Democrats are trying to save face after losing the election, are overplaying their hand and have lost their grip on reality. He said the real story is “illegal leaks” of classified information, and concluded: “This is a total witch hunt!”
Mr Sessions rejected any suggestion that he tried to mislead anyone about his contacts with the Russian, saying: “That is not my intent. That is not correct.”
But he did admit he should have been more careful in his evidence during his confirmation hearing, saying: “I should have slowed down and said, ‘But I did meet one Russian official a couple of times’.”
One of the conversations with Mr Kislyak occurred at a July event on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov argued that contacts with officials and lawmakers are part of any ambassador’s duties.
He added the pressure on Mr Sessions “strongly resembles a witch hunt or the times of McCarthyism, which we thought were long over in the United States”.
In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy led a hunt for purported communist infiltrators in the US government, often involving unfounded accusations.