Let’s establish a couple of things first. There is no proof that Jeff Sessions lied under oath. He was asked a particularly contorted question designed to ensnare him no matter what he answered. A simple straight forward question would have gotten a straight forward answer.
Franken: “CNN just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provided documents to the president-elect last week that included information that quote, ‘Russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.’ These documents also allegedly say quote, ‘There was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump’s surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.’
“Now, again, I’m telling you this as it’s coming out, so you know. But if it’s true, it’s obviously extremely serious and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”
“In the course of this campaign.” The question was intentionally half-assed and the half-assed Franken knows it and really only the half-assed will persist in this line of attack.
Sen. Pat Leahy asked straight forward question and got a straight forward answer.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked: “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?”
Sessions responded, in total: “No.”
The issue is a settled one, but put that in abeyance for a minute. What if the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians? What would be the punishment? Is there a precedent for an American colluding with the Russians to intervene in an election?
Why yes there is.
Forbes, 8/28/2009
Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy.
“On 9-10 May of this year,” the May 14 memorandum explained, “Sen. Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow.” (Tunney was Kennedy’s law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) “The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.”
Kennedy’s message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. “The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations,” the memorandum stated. “These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign.”
What punishment was meted out to Kennedy for this transgression?
Non-hypocrites want to know. If Kennedy’s actions didn’t rise to the level of outrage and retribution, then we’re all wasting our time. This is before we even get to Hillary and Bill being owned by the Russians.
And also before we get to Obama interfering with Israeli elections (“Shocking interference”) , French elections and his “monstrous” interference with Brexit.
democrats were perfectly fine with Russians interfering with US elections and were perfectly fine with obama interfering with everyone else’s elections. So what exactly are they whining about now?
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.