Since Mr. Sessions can't seem to remember things and is badly rattled by chaos, it appears he has symptoms of dementia. I have had opportunities to witness friends and family members with dementia and there is a remarkable likeness in the behavior. Perhaps he should be relieved of his position as AG due to medical reasons. It might be worthwhile to have him tested. We cannot have an AG that has severe medical problems that keep him from doing his job.
8
Maybe the AG has dementia. That could explain his memory problem as well as other failings.
4
Master classes in how to take the fifth without actually taking the fifth.
6
I watched him lying on center stage yesterday. I couldn't help but think that HE was actually doing a parody of Kate McKinnon's SNL character, Sessions the Possum. It was just so surreal that it seemed to be a parody. Unfortunately I pinched myself, woke up and realized it was actually just another swamp creature appointed by the King of The Swamp. Sad, very sad.
5
Someone with such a horrendous memory is unfit to hold the position of Attorney General of the United States.
How can we expect a man with such a horrific memory to enforce our laws?
6
You're right. He should be going after Hillary, the Podesta Group, and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
1
This monsterous incarnation of Un-American who incite their partisans to unknown heights of passion ARE AN EMBARASSMENT.
A politician for our highest office was attacked by our nation's most worrisome competitor, she then lost an election, she accepted the outcome, SHE IS A PRIVATE CITIZEN, and these poorest excuses of manhood start implying criminality on some stories that are years old.
These reckless officeholders USE THEIR CONSIDERABLE POWER to contrive the notion that a criminal investigation is warranted; and, if that is not bad enough, their purpose is to undermine the authority and reputation of a duly-appointed Special Council (creating public suspicion and politicizing any due processes, thus lending to a potentially more embroiled public.)
This particular political party has an unscrupulous penchant for wasting millions of taxpayers' dollars on unclassified emails on private servers (not that it's right, but Colin Powell used one prior), I suggest that they CUT THEIR HYPOCRICY and ask their current Administration about their recent email faux pas, if they're intent on a fishing trip.
2
Apparently, political tribalism in a two party system is making possible for the US attorney general to perjure himself without repercussions during a senate hearing as long as his political affiliation correspond to the senate majority party. Murdoch's power on US society is clearly visible here, as his business model of selling ads on TV by means of political mayhem sensationalism is making him a fortune at the expense of public and political discourse.
3
Let us be charitable and and argue instead that he should resign from his position because of profound memory loss. Should we trust an AG who claims cognitive deficits?
2
How can someone with such a sketchy memory be fit for the job of the chief legal authority of the United States?
2
I have on DVD two Daily Shows from 2007 reporting on Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez' inability to recall when testifying before Congress. Seems to be a common illness among Republican AG's.
2
The more I see and hear the more I think that the Republican Party is in a death spiral. We need two parties, but the one in question is going away or seceding.
2
Mr. Sessions regrets
he's unable to, um,
recall, today.
1
He forgot to say that he misspoke.
1
Were there no minutes of the meetings whose contents Sessions claims not to recall? Why hasn't someone asked him to read the relevant minutes and provide answers based on them? Shouldn't someone be able to subpoena minutes?
1
Where are the charges for perjury? A dem would be behind bars by now
Just another example of dems fighting for nothing
7
Perhaps everyone in power should be tested for memory loss.
4
I'm so glad that the primo US Attorney has made it possible to lie under oath.
"Is this your drugs in your hand" well, shucks "I don't recall".
"sir, you're being served with divorce papers." Well, "I don't recall having a wife"
The only apparent vetting the Trump administration did was to ask, "Will you, at risk to your reputation and possibly your freedom, be willing to say and do anything it takes to cover for this administration? Your reward is the possibility of all the money and/or power you have been dreaming about."
Of course, if it doesn't pan out, you're on your own.
7
Maybe Attorney General Sessions has Alzheimer’s or amnesia? It strikes me as funny that he “knows nothing” just like Sergeant Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes fame.
I cannot wait for his memoirs...
4
He could help the country better, if he retires and start praying for our country. We The People sure could use it.
4
The publicans keep getting worse and worse. No morals, no intellect, no principles and no shame. We have a really long three years ahead of us.
5
It all depends on what the meaning of "truth" is ...
3
The editorial board is pretending ignorance of the immensely complicated nature of high level government service, and the deceptive/evasive lawyerly behavior that most officials and politicians now engage in which leads to most of them not knowing what is actually going on a large percentage of the time. Someone like Sessions needs a high IQ full time employee just to keep his schedule straight, and similarly what is legal and or against some obscure regulation is a moving target, kept intentionally vague by the same class of lying Democrats that are now trying to find-invent something, anything "illegal" about what Trump and anyone who worked for him may have done. Most nations to include the USA, China, UK, Canada and yes also Russia try to "influence" or "meddle"(what the heck does 'meddle' even mean in a legal sense anyway) in the others elections. When a Prime Minister or President in another nation proclaims they prefer the policies of one candidate in the media they ARE potentially affecting the out come (meddling??). But so what? When the democrats get much help from dubious "socialist" sources (money from Russia-China) to fund anti war protests, anti war pro communist politicians here the democrats used to say this was OK, a kind of international free speech that could be countered by a truly objective US media and free citizen speech here. Weird that now democrats claim that leaks of TRUE Democrat e-mails is said to be a threat to all civilization.
1
The editorial was about Sessions' selectively poor memory whenever he testifies before a Congressional committee. Period.
Your deflection skills need work. Here, you're welcome to use this more concise example of whataboutism: "But, but, but...her emails, her emails, her emails, WHIIIIIINE."
Democrats are no longer in office. Get over it.
1
Even though, the main portion of this editorial was about his poor memory... "poor memory" sounds familiar doesn't it? Just like when a particular female Democratic senator, under a Congressional committee testimony, kept saying the words "I can not recall, or I do not remember." about her illegal email servers, and the emails in general If your anger now isn't the same as it was back then, then you are obviously biased, and will have a skewered perspective on these issues.
This clown has outlived his sell- by date.Whether he has dementia or is lying he needs to go…and not back to the senate.He has perjured himself and colluded with Russia and made a mockery of the constitution and the dept. of justice.The nerve of this man to get "huffy"when accused of high crimes and misdemeanors is laughable.Buh bye.
11
Fascinating the selective memory Liberals have:
Hillary Clinton “didn’t recall” (21Times)
Eric Holder “didn’t recall” held in contempt
John Podesta “didn’t recall”
John Koskinen “didn’t recall”
Greg Roseman (IRS) I take the 5th
Bryan Pagliano (state dept) I takes the 5th
John Sepulveda, Diana Rubens, Kimberley Graves (VA) take the 5th
Lois Lerner (IRS) takes the 5th
3
Irrelevant. It’s Sessions who’s being questioned and it’s Sessions who doesn’t recall.
12
Really. Really? It’s all politics. All the same each side. Don't be fooled.
2
Liar and opportunist....
2
Say what you will about the Evangelicals in Alabama, they are just like all Evangelicals nationwide. They believe they are saved, mainly because God blesses them with 'stuff' and they 'believe', and they believe the poor are getting their just rewards likewise.
In Alabama there is no cutesy facade, THEY ARE THE TRUE EVANGELICALS! They are hypocrites all because they're saved no matter what they did. It use to be a joke that Roman Catholics could just go to confession and do as they will. Catholics have to truly be sorry and ask out to the Lord in penance in front of a priest. It keeps Catholics closer to true spirituality by keeping them closer to God, always improving.
These Evangelicals are a different lot. Most all of them greedy, all their sermons are from St. Paul about "eternal fire and damnation" and nothing on the true nature of Christianity: Love, forgiveness, and acceptance. It's an evangelical who'll say something is socialistic faster than anyone or any other group.
In my book Evangelicals are dangerous because, #1 they don't think and therefore are a 'mob' that the Republican establishment pushes around, #2 they have no compassion what so ever (even if Christ himself is pure compassion), #3 it's plainly a false religion masquerading as Christianity to benefit a few while manipulating the many (mainly it's money and influence).
This is the Red State mentality (for the most part) and Alabama in particular.
From Alabama, divorced evangelical. Praise GOD!
13
These folks make epithets of the good things they despise. Civilized people are social, so they make an epithet of "socialism". The word to describe them is "sociopaths".
3
Seems if folks told the truth and did the job they were elected to do, we wouldn’t need so many committee hearings...which are paid for tax dollars. I work hard and resent that my taxes are spent on these lying fools.
6
Folks, lets let Mueller do his job!! He will be looking for the "I don't recall' patterns from each of the folks interviewed!! After all, if the ENTIRE team can't recall then the pattern emerges!! So if the pattern emerges, and I am certain it will, he has a clear case for Obstruction of Justice!
9
The thing about Jeff Sessions is; he's played Alabama Politics too long: Tell the idiots back home anything- and they'll believe it. Take that idiocy to the Senate and colleagues just shrug. Take it to the national stage as U.S. Attorney General- and surprise, the response is a bit different.
The man who remembers nothing must have his memory jogged by news accounts and hard hitting questioning by Democratic Senators; then and only then does he have perfect recall about events, conversations and seating charts. I just home that Mr. Mueller takes the sage advise of Mr. Sessions and indicts him on numerous counts off perjury in the same manner prosecutor Sessions convicted an Alabama police officer for uttering one untruth-- then changed his statement: No Mercy shown then- No mercy should be shown now.
10
Lying under oath, a new Republican standard.
12
He doesn't recall because if he did, Trump would put a Hit out on him. The Russian Mob would want his head and then, he'd have to resign too. No golden parachute. I think he is sure he is guilty and can't figure out how to get his retirement check and stay out of jail.
4
I watched the entire hearing.....It appears that Sessions either suffers from dementia or is lying. My guess is Both !
9
Recall Jess Sessions, then.
4
If his memory is that bad, he is unfit and should be removed from office.
10
Precisely.
1
Funny how most of the people defending Sessions spend most of their time talking about someone else.
9
Jeff probably learnt from the best who became the President of the US who may have actually been suffering from Alzheimer's and repeated many a times to avoid Perjury, "I don't remember" or I do not recollect..
Jeff Sessions is a cunning man, I wonder if a culprit claims to not remember to have committed a crime would we let him be the chief law enforcer of the country? or should he just be forced to resign?
Republicans are shrewd and use lies to hide their true motives in speaking the untruth all the time.
Southern sweet talker can talk himself out of tight spots some of the time, but must not be allowed to stay on the post of AG for a minute longer now. Democrats are feckless and the Republicans are riding high and Jeff Sessions knows it. Just look at the current person in the White House- Do we need to say more?
8
The entire Republican led congress is a disgrace. Yes, specious investigations against a former political opponent. What a waste of time. Shouldn't they get down to the people's business of protecting the deficit. Lower deficits helps everyone. It also does not crowd out corporate and personal credit markets and keeps interest rates low. Lower deficits is how the R's evaluated every Obama budgetary request. BUT WAIT..... Hypocrisy must abound for the R's to do anything.
Now they want to both give the corporate tax break, lower the 1%'s taxes, increase upper middle class taxes, de-fund the ACA at the expense of lower income and uninsured Americans. Who are the R's doing the government's business for? Oh Yeah, all that will blow the deficit up by 1.5 trillion dollars. That is hypocrisy along with these right wing conspirators investigatory wishes.
6
Reminds me of Ollie North and Reagan. I can not recall. I can not recall. over and over and over. Just admit it. You did it. You lied about it. And this is the guy that wants to go on some moral crusade against legal marijuana.
6
If he doesn't recall something of such paramount importance, then he lacks the mental acuity to serve at AG.
14
General Sessions performance reminds me of the scene from Witness for the Prosecution (by Agatha Christie) where an English Barrister - after cross-examining a witness who has admitted to not telling the whole truth on prior occasions including a version given in the courtroom - comments: "And now today you've told us a new story entirely! The question is . . . were you lying then, are you lying now, or are you not in fact a chronic and habitual LIAR?!"
5
Hey Sessions --
Can you name, within plus or minus several decades, the decade you met your future wife?
We didn't think so.
5
Forgetful old folks? RETIRE
2
Can't afford to.
1
Like not remembering whether you used a toilet but positive that you flushed...
3
This guy makes me wicked sick.
3
Is it my imagination, or have Republicans taken control of every lever of government in part by going after Democrats virulently and persistently for years on end. While Dems don't have to stoop to the level of the GOP and just make stuff up (Benghazi conspiracy, uranium deal conspiracy, etc., etc.), can't they at least learn how to effectively attack when they are in the right? Why aren't dozens of elected Dems calling daily for a prejury trial for Sessions, for firing of Scott Pruitt for egregious use of taxpayer money, for withdrawal of Jared and Ivanka's security clearances, etc., etc.? Why are Dems weak even after Republicans have abundantly shown them that hard-fighting tactics yield electoral results?! What are they afraid of?
8
If Sessions lies about lying, could that be considered the truth?
2
With Sessions continued impersonation of a befuddled Elmer Fudd, The House Judiciary Committee hearing definitely need questions to be asked by Bugs Bunny.
1
All that's left for the Republicans is diversion and revenge. They don't know how to govern, they can't get anything passed, they have a fool for a president, so they point the other way hoping the public doesn't see how pathetic they are.
12
Jeff Sessions is, surprisingly (I had to look it up), not that old, born in December 1946, so now just coming up on 71. A bit young still for Alzheimer's, and no particular sign of dementia. So, his repeated "I don't recalls" pronounced with a beautiful Southern drawl are just blatant lying, beyond mere disingenuousness. And it is plain for anyone to see and hear who is listening. Of course, in his own self-perception, he is the pinnacle of propriety and goodness. I advise him to take a very long and careful look at himself in the mirror.
4
It's IMPOSSIBLE to take his "assurances"
anywhere.
5
We have an attorney general who is a liar and lied repeatedly to congress. Know one is that forgetful and if the highest attorney in the land can lie to congress so can everyone else.
Justice in this country is now gone.
3
If AG Sessions has such a bad memory, how in the heck can he remember the "law" sufficiently enough to manage the DOF???? I, know, he is really not qualified for the position.
4
So Sessions apparently perjured himself. What should be done with such a person?
Lock him up! Lock him up!
6
I keep trying to convince my self Sessions and Moore and Trump and Ryan and McConnel really don't in fact represent this country.
That is a lose lose, because if they don't represent us, then we are being led down a dark and dangerous path. I the DO represent us, then I would think a wide swath of people, myself included, are planning to leave the country. Now, I know no one cares about whether I leave (I know the replies will be "here's the door" etc..) But I wonder how many people are seriously contemplating that. Maybe empty the country of all but the republicans and let them cheat each other and blow each other up.
4
There isn't any political office in the US that answers equally to all of the people. All of these people you named stand on narrow platforms typically controlled by a collection of statehouse crony lawyers and politicians generally funded by the state's wealthiest citizens.
These hearings have become a sick joke of partisan politics. No real information is transferred, and even if it is, it is useless. The phrase 'kangaroo court' is becoming more real every day (which began long before Trump was in office). Quite literally, no one is held accountable - at all - for anything they say if they're in the majority party. If there was a democratic appointed AG up there for the exact same reason, the rhetoric in the room would be a mirror image.
The confirmation hearings are even worse. The nominee can - again, quite literally - say anything under the sun to look a certain way, and have absolutely no legal or moral obligation to even remotely adhere to what was said or claimed.
We have reached a point where flat out, constant lies pass for a 'hearing'.
This is disgusting, and an embarrassment to our country.
4
So glad we are able to drain the swamp. He's a bad dude.
1
It was amazing to me that the Secretary of DOJ, the highest law enforcement official in the Nation, "can't recall" much of what occurs at any meeting he attends. He is either totally incompetent to hold his job, or is suffering from dementia. In either case he is not qualified to hold the office his Senate colleagues overwhelmingly approved his appointment to.
4
How about if we just send Sessions back to Alabama to a facility for old guys who can't remember anything? He is a disgrace to any government job.
And it is really too bad he wanted this job so very badly. Just unfit.
3
The Times flubs it again.
He did not forget things, he claims that he forgot them.
Big difference.
He “PLUM FORGOT”. !!!
Bad men often have excellent memories all the better to lie with.
3
Did he apologize for misstating the facts in the earlier hearings?
If an honest man is shown a prior failure of memory, he apologizes. He doesn't act defiant and he doesn't maintain the pretense that nothing happened.
The reality here is clear and I expect that Mueller will eventually show us the smoking gun.
Trump, being a long time con artist, did at least one thing right, from his point of view. He doesn't use email. But, I think there's enough on the public record to charge him with obstruction of justice.
Sometime after that, it will be up to Congress and, possibly, the Courts to deal with Trump. I'm not terribly optimistic about that.
2
As much as I dislike the man, I find his answers to be legally sound. My father, an attorney for 40 years, used to say, "admit nothing, deny everything". Great rule for not going to prison, probably a bad rule for democracy
7
Here in the US, legality and justice come into coincidence about as frequently as the moon lines up with the Sun and Earth to scan the US with a total eclipse.
1
Time to remove this confederate monument to a jail cell where he belongs.
1
Sgt. Schultz speaks: I know nussink! I saw nussink!
Mr. Sessions should be examined by a panel of board certified psychiatrists and neurologists in light of what appears to be a galloping form of dementia, or perhaps selective dementia. Surely, the man is unfit to head the DOJ and perform his duties as the AG. Likewise the Repuglicans on that committee should undergo an evaluation form their apparent "Clinton obsession derrangement syndrome" to the exclusion of nearly everything else.
4
For anyone who can walk and chew gum, this fool has made a mockery of our nation, and before the entire world. He's got to go!!
4
Jeff Sessions is a liar. That's all you have to say.
6
If only idiocy were a crime, then we could appoint a special counsel to investigate the House Republicans. When did the House of Representatives become home to total buffoons?
3
It never was a brilliant body of intellects, but it really fell off a cliff after the Roe v. Wade decision opened the door to abortion politics.
2
Come on. This guy is just a crook. He has lied and lied and is tripping up over his many lies. How can someone who is that lazy, crooked, and unethical be the Attorney General of the US? Well, maybe the same way a sexist, racist, misogynist, authoritarian crook can become President of the United States. If enough Americans ignore their crookedness this is what happens. I fear for our country.
6
Obviously many Americans believe that only crooks can succeed in the jungle of the real world.
2
Why isn't anyone using the "Crooked" page from Trump's playbook? Crooked lying Jeff...
2
Projection really is a bad habit. I'd rather not go there.
1
Putin's plans to instill chaos and wreak havoc in our federal government, our media, and our public worked better than his wildest dreams. He is Machiavelli incarnate. Meanwhile, American citizens can only watch while our democracy and the rule of law burn around us.
4
Putin would tell you it is a piece of cake to turn the simultaneous mutually-contradictory beliefs of schizophrenics into a nuclear annihilation.
Sounds like H.R.C. She “ couldn’t recall” 39 times when questioned about her emails of course this being the Times in 2017 we won’t hear a peep about that nor a negative comment from her “base”. I’m not sure where we went wrong but as a life long Democrat/liberal I no longer recognize our nation. I had great hopes when President Obama was elected but he was so hamstrung by special interest he was robbed of any chance to become the greatest President in a generation. As our current President is so fond of saying “so sad”. I still love President Obama, he demonstrated an innate elegance and great intelligence as did his entire family that is hopelessly lost in today’s America on both sides of the aisle.
1
Hillary beat Sessions in the endurance contest hands down. Trey Gowdy still hasn't recovered.
2
Maybe the US ATTORNEY GENERAL should be reminded what it means in the oath to tell the WHOLE TRUTH. Should the top legal officer in this country need to be reminded of this? Sad..
4
If you're in no danger of being held in contempt of court then just avoid answering direct questions altogether. That's my motto.
3
Of interest was Sessions' defense that he should be believed about forgetting a meeting because the facts were exonerative. By that logic we should assume that he did remember suspicious incidents and lied about them under oath.
3
This needs to stop now! Isolate the incidents where he committed Perjury and put him to trial. It is against the law to commit perjury. Sessions needs to answer to his crime and pay the price. We can not have a criminal running our Justice Department, pure and simple. We need to start somewhere.
2
Attorney General Jeff Sessions middle name says it all. I can just imagine the discussions during dinner time in his youth.
Say what you may about Jeff Sessions, he is an honorable man, and I support him. Thank you.
4
Please define honorable for me?
5
That your sense of honor includes phedophelia is very sad. Thank you for reminding us what the South is RELLY all about.
2
@Deborah Anderson
Thank you, unfortunately what I would like to say to you can not be published.
1
"Mem'ries light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored mem'ries of the way we were ...
... What's too painful, (or incriminating) to remember
We simply choose to forget."
4
I see phrases in comments here like Sessions and the administration are pathological liars or have Alzheimer's for all the times they can't seem to remember. Look no further than the comments here if you want to know why people are willing to vote for Trump or anyone who has not been in Washington. Aren't these the same things we have heard over and over from the Obama administration? Saying something didn't happen....then when caught in a lie either revising their testimony or saying they don't recall. At least Ms. Lynch of the IRS took the 5th and refused to say anything at all....even though I assume she was guilty of using her government duties for partisan purposes....there was still a kind of integrity in her taking the 5th. My point is to point out how partisan the discourse here is on these boards. We are the voters....we need to look beyond the partisan bias / lies fed to us by whichever party we identify with and start figuring out how to use our vote to change the system so that it works. Right now its broken and we are lied to...intentionally and unintentionally....every day by the politicians on the team we "trust". Obama's administration abused the powers of the executive branch every day to achieve a political or policy aim. It is foolish to assume that it was okay for Obama to do it because the policy goal was admirable because the next guy who uses that power may do things we don't like and suddenly it is awful.
2
Obama is not the president anymore.
Trump is and he's a liar.
3
Yeah but Obama. President Obama isn’t why Trump is in the White House. Ignorant bigots and misogynists are why he’s there.
4
in the days of the Founders, the food was more basic and less tainted, the air and water less polluted, and any of a myriad of other environmental conditions more healthy and natural than in today's world.
perhaps that, and our longer average lifespans today, accounts for the fact that there seems to be such an epidemic of dementia in the current administration, and so few constitutional remedies for ridding ourselves of officals who are so clearly impaired and incompetent.
could the Senate call for mandatory expert evaluations of the mental state of the AG or the President? who thought of such things in the 18th Century? Alzheimer's hadn't even been invented yet! so we're stuck with these doddering old fools who can't remember diddly squat under oath...
or they're playing for sympathy while lying through their false teeth.
either way, I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.
1
Can congress not require that Mr. Sessions get a thorough neurological exam?? His faulty memory suggests dementia or worse.
6
He sounds just like my husband, who is slowly slipping into dementia from a few mini strokes. Not qualified to be AG of the USofA!
6
I've officially decided I will attempt to primary my Republican congressional representative out of office. I may have to run as an independent as I have to petition myself onto the ballot. I'm fairly sure the local Party has mechanisms to shut down my candidacy anyway. However, I can not stand idly by while this nonsense continues any longer. We debase our nation when the Attorney General cannot answer reasonable questions honestly. Meanwhile, Party members willfully encourage his misconduct. If no one else will take a stand, I will.
3
The NYT Editorial Board asks, “What else are you forgetting, Mr. Attorney General?”
Well, it’s quite apparent that the AG needs some help from the ongoing Mueller probe to jog his memory. So let’s hope Mueller has questioned everyone present at that March 31, 2016 foreign policy meeting, which shows George Papadopoulos seated between Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump. Mr. Papadopoulos, who pled guilty of lying to the FBI and is now cooperating with the Mueller investigation, has already confessed that a trip to Russia was discussed at that meeting. Mr. Sessions, who told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that he now has had a reawakening of his memory of that meeting, claims that he shot down Mr. Papadopoulos’ Russian trip idea and that was basically the gist of it. Well, maybe the other members present at that meeting might remember more about the Russia discussion than what Mr. Sessions does? Their collective recollection might help answer the NYT Editorial Board’s question as to what else the AG is forgetting.
3
The indictment against Papadopoulos does not say Papadopoulos had meetings with Russian officials about the 2016 election. It says Papadopoulos claimed he had a contact with a London professor who offered to use his contacts to arrange a meeting with Russian officials. Papadopoulos proposed using his contact with the professor, who is not Russian, to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. The indictment plainly states the proposed meeting never occurred. It provides evidence that Sessions testified truthfully when he said he knew of no meeting between Trump campaign members and Russian officials to discuss the 2016 election.
1
It amazed me how little A.G.Sessions could not recall. Unless his recall is to his advantage and held little or no consequences to himself. I fear he has Alzheimer's. He should be told. Its ludicrous that this man is the top law enforcement officer in our country. Does he even remember where his office is? Location? His wife? Thank God for us. Although it may not be this one ,it seems like some of our government is running itself.
4
This little little man with southern mentality is not fit to be attorney general. This is the case with all of Trump's appointees. Every last one of them is set to destroy the departments they ma bhai age.
5
If he's lying, then he's committed perjury. If he truly does not remember or honestly believes that he's telling the truth, then he's senile. In either case he is unfit for the office.
6
During his confirmation hearing, Session told Sen. Al Franken he had had no communications with Russian regarding the Russian Dossier and did not know of anyone in the Trump organization who had. No evidence has surface to contradict Session's statement.
In separate exchange, Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Sessions: “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisors 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: “No.” No evidence has ever emerged to contradict Sessions testimony.
Sessions says his meeting with the Russian ambassador—which was attended by staff—concerned the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Sessions had met with the Ukrainian ambassador the previous day.
George Papadopoulos was not a Trump nominee or a senior advisor. He never claimed to have contact with anyone connected to the Russian government. The indictment against Papadopoulos shows he claimed to have contact with a London professor—who is Maltese, not Russian—and a Russian student who claimed they could arrange meetings with Russian officials. The indictment plain states the proposed meetings never took place. The London professor says he never proposed such meetings.
We now know that the Clinton campaign—not Russians—paid Christopher Steele to compile the Russian Dossier.
2
Clinton and the Russia dossier, which has largely been shown to be correct, has nothing whatsoever to do with the investigation of Trump et al. for conspiring with Russia. Except that the dossier a priori mentioned meetings that Mr. Sessions and others all initially lied about. Bringing up Clinton is just the normal Trump nonsense. When things get hot, he and his supporters use one of several standard groundless dishonest rhetorical devices. One of these is "mention Clinton"--which is successful in part because it plays to the Trump Republican misogyny.
William Case writes:
"... We now know that the Clinton campaign—not Russians—paid Christopher Steele to compile the Russian Dossier."
4
Sen. Al Franken said: "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.” Franken was clearly referring to the Russian Dossier, which was headline news at the time.
Sessions responded: "I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it." He meant that he had no communication with Russian operatives purported to have compromising information about Trump. No evidence has surface to show Session met with the Russian operatives.
We now know a Clinton campaign surrogate, not a Trump surrogates, met with Russian official to compile the Russian Dossier.
1
Has Mr. Sessions by word and deed has re-defined the GOP - Grumpy Old Prevaricators?
3
I still don't fully comprehend what I heard on Tuesday, when AG Sessions testified before the committee. Oh, what a selective memory! Can he recall his wife's birthdate? Seriously, I have to believe that the AG lied to the committee for the third time, all in an attempt to retain his post and be less irritating to his own boss, #45. In short, I do Not believe that he cannot recall so many significant events. If his memory a truly that bad, should he be our AG? I can conclude only that it is time for him to resign and go home to Alabama. Can we afford an AG whose memory apparently does not extend beyond the day's breakfast? Number 45 won't resign, but with a little pressure, the AG will - and should. Alabama seems to be happy with Sessions, but the nation is Not.
While retaining his office, he is hurting #45, yet resigning could hurt him even more. Both are perfectly fine with me. Number 45 has assembled a cabinet like no other ever seen, including more conflicts of interest than ever seen. God help us all! Is this really happening, or are we having a collective nightmare? And in only Ten Months!! Did I mention invoking God's help? At this point, s/he is about the only entity able to save us. (Even SCOTUS is being gutted.) Those who supported this fool in 2016 should hang their heads in Shame,
2
A politically motivated investigation of a political opponent sounds a lot like what we have going on right now.
1
Sessions lies before Congress; the lie is proved by an external fact; Sessions denies lying and blames his memory?
Can this sort of willful evasion of the truth possibly be condones, by anyone, but in particular by the nominal head of the "Justice" Dept?
The depths to which Trump, Sessions and the gang will sink US rule of law and democracy seems to have no bottom...
How about a nice "Contempt of Congress" charge, at least?
4
Hard to blame an old man for having bad memory. I'm sure he works beyond his capacity to recall important details every day. He will be pressured into appointing a special counsel to investigate the Clinton campaign. He'll remember to do that to keep his job. He'll forget anything that seems to implicate his boss in the most crooked campaign in American History.
2
Let's face it, Trump and his campaign conspired, coordinated, and worked with the Russians. Just like a murder case, there rarely a confession or tape. But the overwhelming mass lying, emails, meetings, Wikkie leaks texts, travel to Russia and general fawning over Putin, firing Commy, changing reasons for firing, changing reasons for meeting with Russians, change in platform, Manifor money with Russians and yes Trump deals with Russians over the years and before and after election, getting rid of sanctions, Flynn, there is enough already.
3
We are one deal , the most beautiful deal ever, away from a dictatorship in the USA : a deal between Trump and Zuckerberg to divvy up the pie.
The vehemence with which one defends oneself is usually indicative of the depth of the wrongdoing. Or as the Bard would have it, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
3
Jeff Sessions, like so many of his Republican brethren suffer from something called, "selective memory," which makes it all too easy to tap dance around the truth.
I can almost hear the rants, "yeah....but the Democrats aren't any better..."
While this has been true, for now anyway, it's beside the point. We have an administration, that is led by the most corrupt and morally bankrupt man so far this century.
No, that swamp was never drained; it has been further polluted by those who have been under one cloud of suspicion of another, while trying their collective hardest to deflect and distract getting at whatever truths there are at their expense. Jeff Sessions is no different than the rest. If he doesn't wind up getting prosecuted, I hope he gets shamed, but good.
2
"Forgetting," which is quite human, is also very understandable.Oft times, to remember is to experience shame.Guilt.To acknowledge personal responsibility. Remembering, and acknowledging, permits yourself to have been "caught-out." In a culture which equates that "state" with not being a winner. The WE, in our daily, violating, WE-THEY culture, doesn't brook socio-political constructed failures.Losers. Consider going beyond the misleading, socially taught, "habit" of apologizing to whomever we said, or did,something unacceptable. Consider the difference between: "I apologize," which leaves the power with me, as an "I;" I ask you to forgive me." Which acknowledges that the "power" is with me. I may, or may not choose to do so.Or not at this time.I may choose to set conditions before I...All of US can and do forget.For real. As well as an acceptable defense/cop-out! Kind of akin to coming late and saying, unasked or not, "Traffic jam.""Bus was late." Who checks these descriptions, presented as explanations to the daily "why's" in our lives?As our AG was attacked by THEM, and protected by his party-colleagues, did anyone dare to directly challenge with:" My sense is that you are lying [adding Sir, or not].If you are lying I will ask you to ask for forgiveness from the American public, as OUR public servant. If I err I will publicly ask for your forgiveness!"Toxic" forgetting seems to be infecting many! Forgetting being complacent. Coopted. When we enable inequitable well being.
I remember Watergate. I remember how it started slowly, with the Republicans defending Nixon, at first, until the evidence built up and then when Nixon's boys started turning on each other the whole ugly mess unraveled.
Of course, we hadn't been blessed with the Clintons yet and the Democratic Party really was the Peoples Party, not the Republic Lite Party, just as beholden to the rich as the Republicans, that the Clinton Gang has created.
"Chuck and Nancy" aren't going to stand up to Trump and his bullies.
3
Mr. Sessions' performance of the oh-so-clever "I don't recall" schtick was lame. Much better to have served it up with a couple buckets-full of self-righteous smarm like Ollie North. Time has been very unkind to Mr. North. He's gone down in history as a bad joke. Donald Trump's attorney general is headed that way.
2
Let's see. I'm in a flurry of meetings, chaotic no less, to discuss our company's takeover of another company. It's exhausting. Then one day a minion mentions, hey, let's meet with the DRUG CARTEL, they have some resources we could really use. I profusely oppose such an inane and illegal suggestion. Months later, you don't think I'd remember such a thing?? Laughable. A bald-faced, perjury worthy LIE. And if Sessions truly doesn't remember Papadopoulos suggesting seeking campaign aid from the RUSSIANS, then he's lost significant mental capacity and is not fit to be Attorney General.
3
The Lying Sessions, now playing in Washington in a double-feature with Dotard's Deceptions.
2
Remember " I can´t recall " Ronald Reagan ?
For some a great president for the rest a liar responsible for the death
of thousands of civilians in foreign sovereign countries . As well as treasonable
contacts and exchanges with the Iranian Revolutionary guards.
Sessions is a Spring Chicken.
4
Horace again: "raro antecedentem scelestum/deseruit pede Poena claudo."
Roughly translated: "Rarely has limping Justice failed to track down a criminal."
My bet, my hope is that Robert Mueller knows his Horace.
3
It would appear the latest gop strategy is to have Sessions resign as AG (McConnell has already floated the idea), and go back to his old Senate position, thus allowing the traitor in the WH to get rid of Mueller. Merry Christmas.
3
Any of you who say that you, while real time facing a Congressional grilling without notes to help you, can perfectly recollect what was said at one meeting out of a hundred meetings you had 12 months ago, is simply lieing. This is called convenient sanctimony.
2
Nice try. You don't find it just a little odd that none of Trump's cohorts seem to be able to remember meetings they had with Russians?
2
One of the most ridiculous aspects of Sessions' defense is that he had "forgotten"; it's not as if he walked into the hearing and was asked a surprise question. The question had been written on the wall for weeks. Thus, a person facing such a question, and his many many staff people, would normally review calendars, notes, recollections, and news reports (AND PHOTOGRAPHS) and by such effort, be able to put together a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the event.
6
Lost in the brouhaha of whether i's were dotted or t's were crossed is what the words actually said. No one involved in the Trump campaign had any improper contact with Russia.
A special counsel was appointed even though there was no evidence to support an investigation and no evidence has been found since. Yet the Democrats act as though crimes have been uncovered and guilt established.
Is it any wonder the Republicans want to get some of the same action going for themselves?
2
What is most remarkable here is that Mr. Sessions, a former federal prosecutor and U.S. Senator, would allow himself to testify before Congress on the Russia-Trump campaign issue without taking pains to refresh his memory so that he wouldn't accidentally look like a liar or a victim of severe memory loss. Either he didn't do that, which given his deep political experience I find difficult to fathom, or he did it and discovered some things he would rather forget. Despite his protestations, Sessions comes off as a willing dissembler in my view.
6
That entire hearing was a sad political fiasco - a joke in terms of any oversight or maintaining an objective, neutral position in support of the country itself. This applies to Democrats and Republicans although the latter certainly went well beyond what the presumed scope of the hearing was far more than the Democrats did. While I appreciated the question about Roy Moore I didn't feel it had a place in this hearing. But worse were the charts touting Sessions's "success" rate on crime, the rest of the fawning and the repeated pleas to investigate Hillary Clinton (yet again). His response to the "Dossier" issue ought to have been that falls under Mueller's purview already. And the response to the Uranium One issue should have been that has already been investigated and FYI it was a joint decision of several other departments in addition to State.
The Russians have succeeded. When all parties behave in this manner, we lost all faith in our democracy and the hope that there is any honest, objective representation.
4
Selective dementia, I would say. I have noticed that this is a common technique of lawyers on the witness stand. Of course, if one uses this technique too much, one starts being called a liar. But in this case it won't happen because the judge is a House of Representatives that doesn't have any interest in finding out whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.
The only investigation that isn't corrupt or dysfunctional is the one being conducted by Robert Muller. No telling what Sessions told Muller. I am sure that Muller is prepared to point out Sessions inconsistencies in a court of law -- if it comes to a perjury case against Sessions. The House will in no one confront another Republican.
3
There are stiff penalties for perjury. Let's apply them. Who better than the Attorney General to want them followed?
6
On Russia, perhaps what Mr. Sessions is saying is, "their corruption is not my corruption", or "that's not what i signed on for". He could make this clear by emphatically saying that a call to investigate Ms Clinton is an obvious plan to distract from the Russia investigation and he wants no part of it, especially as Trump is proposing this, and it also affects the independence of the DOJ. It's also time for someone from Alabama to do something right.
3
Any good lawyer would advise his or her client to say the same in these circumstances. I've testified under oath a few times about things where my memory was murky, and you can bet I used exactly those words.
It's shameful for people like the writer of this article to criticize Jeff Sessions or anyone else who testifies under oath for minor problems with their memory or the words they use to express themselves. That's not a search for truth. It's an inquisition.
3
And of you forgot half as much as he has under oath I’d say you’re either losing your memory or you’re a liar. Same standards apply. I’ve been coached by an attorney as well. He never told me to claim a poor memory if I knew or
could recall the event in question. Amazingly—sessions could remember his advice to Papadopoulos but not the meeting? Hogwash.
2
Remember the guys from Fusion GPS and Lois Lerner? They could recall by just wouldn't say.
2
At his confirmation hearing in January, Sessions did not testified that “he’d had no contact with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign,” as the article asserts. He testified that he’d had no contacts with “Russian operatives” regarding the Russian Dossier. He added that he know of no Trump campaign staffers who had met with Russian operatives. Sessions also testified during the hearing that he’d had no contacts with Russian officials to discuss the 2016 campaign. So far, no evidence has surfaced to indicate Sessions’ answers were false.
We now know that the Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to produce the Russian Dossier. Clinton surrogates—not Trump surrogates--met with Russians.
Sessions has explain that the purpose of his meeting with the Russian ambassador was to discuss the Ukrainian crisis. He had met the previous day with the Ukrainian ambassador. This is easily corroborated, Staff attended both meetings.
Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian attorney, not Russian operatives or Russian officials.
The indictment against George Papadopoulos plainly states that the meeting he proposed to arrange never took place. Papadopoulos never met with Russian officials.
1
How does Sessions distinguish Russian "operatives" from private citizen Russians?
2
Jeff Sessions attitude is simple: "If you don't know it, I'm not gonna tell you. Don't ask me to snitch, I'm a team player."
That's the catch, and also his weakness. He's a team player, but he also has considerable skills as a lawyer and is quickly "offended." He's a proud man. I suspect that if he were ever clearly caught with his hand in the cookie jar he would become the best witness Mr. Mueller could hope for.
3
Jeff Sessions sounded a lot like Ronald Reagan an that last Republican Attorney General
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgbJSrIvWc
There's a theme here.
3
Elected Republicans seem okay with watching while the principles of the Constitution and real American values are being jettisoned to get yet more treasure onto the pirates' ships.
3
Anything for power and “a win”. It’s sickening.
1
I believe in due process, I just wish that partisanship was not so extreme that there is no recourse for such brazen lying.
2
Perhaps Mr. Sessions should be asked to step down as AG since it appears he might be too impaired to hold the office. I think his inability to remember critical details like meeting with Russians or other vital facts might be indicative of some kind of memory robbing disease. Or...it could be indicative of some kind of disease much worse...one that robs the individual of ethics, morals, conscience, honesty, and character...called Trumpism.
3
This is so silly. Every campaign has "advisory committees" that are volunteer boards intended to make the campaign appear more substantive and flatter the members. They don't meet often but when they do, arrangements are made to trot in some Big Names, even the Candidate himself, so that committee members can name drop...."when I met with [Trump/Clinton/Sessions/whoever] last week, I told him that I would be [having lunch with you/traveling to Moscow/asking your opinion on this/etc]
Does anyone honestly think that the Big Names pay attention to hangers-on like Papdoupolis or Page? Nope. In one ear. Out the other.
Same with the several-time-daily grip-and-grin receptions that candidates and campaign staff, members of Congress, and administration figures endure. Everybody wants to tell them something. Because they're perceived as important and maybe a path to a job or contract. They pass business cards on to staff and most of those hit the "round file." In one ear. Out the other.
I've personally met the now-departed Russian Ambassador at least a dozen times. He wouldn't recognize me if his limousine hit me on Connecticut Avenue.
Trying to hold Sessions to recalling these types of encounters is ridiculous.
2
There is a world of difference between the phrase "He forgets" and "He says he forgets."
2
Get real!
That Clinton took $2.35 million from Uranium One as the State Department she ran was approving its sale of 20% of the US uranium supply to our "enemy" in Russia is a mere distraction from the real scandal; namely, the Trump campaigns efforts to get Russia to release Hillary's missing e-mails?
How partisan do you have to be?
Seriously, what's worse: Clinton pocketing millions of dollars to approve the transfer of US Uranium to Russia, or Trump seeking to uncover her e-mails?
The Trump campaign was seeking to uncover the missing emails, and the Clintons were using their public position to line their pockets, and in the process, transfer one of our most valuable resources to an enemy.
This is serious, and political pundits from the Left are only interested in bringing down the Trump presidency - any way they can.
Look, before you get all crazy, I voted for Hillary and would do so again because Trump is unfit to be president - for so many reasons.
But be honest: Hillary's "pay for play" scandals are much worse, both for our democracy and national security, then anything Trump is accused of doing with the Russians.
3
The Clinton's may be greed and seedy, but they have been investigated many times - including by their staunchest foes. They have been found lacking in morals and ethics but not of breaking laws.
Uranium is widely available on the public market - e.g. from Canada. This is not a 'transfer of our most valuable resource' by any stretch of the imagination. Had they opposed the sale I'm sure the armchair-patriots on the right would have shouted bloody murder over them interfering with free commerce.
1
The Uranium One business is a red herring. Nine federal agencies signed off on it, and no uranium was sent to Russia. You can google "Uranium One" and find out about it. Stop repeating partisan lies. It's getting really old.
1
As Sessions doesn't want to hurt Trump's presidency, he has no appetite to cooperate and help shed light into Trump's murky campaign activities. While he said he didn't remember events, he contradicted himself when he recalled certain details.
What is positive is that he doesn't seem keen on a second special counsel to look into Hillary Clinton's affairs. It remains to be seen whether Trump and a dozen Congressional Republicans will have their way, as they are eager to divert attention from the ongoing investigations into the Trump team's possible collusion with Russia.
For now Sessions seems untouchable, because if Trump fires him, the president will be in deep trouble with the public.
3
In assessing Sessions' credibility his recusal from the Russian investigation should certainly weigh in his favor. By recusing himself, he opened the door to Mueller's investigation and the possibility of Trump's impeachment, all over Trump's objection. When the chips were down, he stood up to Trump. much to his credit. He put Trump in jeopardy and, as we see now, he put himself in jeopardy by doing the right thing. That is honorable conduct and he should be credited with that.
Sessions was using the hearing as a seminar for white collar criminals in how to avoid perjury charges.
I’m sure the attorneys in the DOJ appreciated that.
I wonder if his wife will turn out to be the next Martha Mitchell.
9
He makes Ed Meese look like Earl Warren. Just another corrupt ,venal, lying ,duplicitous ogre that is the hallmark of Trump appointees .
11
DC is rife with lies, disingenuous statements, euphemisms, and tunnel vision that leads the average Joe to tears, utter disbelief or belly laughs. And while one might note that this ship of fools is manned by members of both parties, the sad truth is that the GOP is the worst. Did you know that the trickle down theory has never worked but now things are "different." Ya, right! How is it that those in power tell lies that are easily verified to be not true and then seem surprised at the revelation? How is it that there is so much incompetence at play in one administration? It seems that Alice fell down the rabbit hole to meet a bunch of fools with law degrees pretending to be intelligent, thoughtful representatives for the good of the American people. Ya, right!
7
OMG, GOP! It's sadly obvious that you're completely focused on politics and self-serving intentions. You don't care about governing or the well being of the average citizen. I'm giving up hope that you will turn this circus around because you seem to like that the Emperor has no clothes.
7
Ignorance is no excuse under the law!
8
We must begin the discussion by recalling that Sessions was named after two traitors to the United States of America.
12
Another reminder of what white male privilege looks like. You get to "forget" key facts, assault underage women, and/or be totally incompetent at your job....and you still keep the highest job in your profession. The same conservatives who live by "personal responsibility" will line the halls to make excuses for all your failings.
10
If Sessions memory is that poor he needs to be tested for Alzheimers.
11
Sessions is a liar. Period!
9
Russian Probe: Jeff Sessions
Watergate: John Mitchell
Iran Contras: Ollie North
All of the above have no memory of the those events.
As Sargeant Schultz (Hogan's Heroes) once said:
" I know nothing...NOTHING!
10
Looks like a liar. Quacks like a liar....
What's new? It's modern partisan government working at survival, and to the cost of absolutely everything else; including country, given that honor dissolved a long time ago.
Oh, how those Ruskies must be laughing. And it was all so easy. For years they never knew that so many Americans were willing to sell out their own country.
9
Dementia? Is that a good enough excuse he could use?
The price of collusion and treason is so high that Sessions is likely forced into this position....a position where he has difficulty remembering events related to Russia. Mr. Mueller and team will need to have solid evidence of a conspiracy to bring this rotten house down...I am talking about multiple people and people at high levels of government going to prison for undermining democracy. An example needs to be set and set in stone.
4
Hope he can recall how to get home at night, or the names of his relatives!
4
Stop tainting otherwise good op-eds by throwing in pandering phrases like:
"allegations, most half-baked if not entirely raw, against Hillary Clinton"
There is nothing "half-baked" about these actual factual events. That description renders your statements very Trumpish. There is no reason to lie when the truth would be just fine.
1
True - actual, factual events are not half-baked. The distortion and misrepresentation of ordinary, everyday political events to make them sound nefarious is.
2
What actual factual events are you referring to? And how to they in any way indicate criminal wrong doing by the Clintons? They don’t. As Shep Smith at Fox News has made clear. The Republicans have made these half-baked accusations to divert attention from the nitwit running the country. Not gonna work.
1
November 15, 2017
Mr. Sessions may reflect on the following to test his memory for his testimony and truthfulness and no one would doubt his deep profound knowledge for historical events on oath.
“Beyond A Reasonable Doubt: 23 Arguments for the Historical Validity of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ”
Ref: 23 Arguments for the Historical Validity of the ...
www.truthortradition.com/articles/beyond-a-reasonable-doubt-23..
JJA Manhattan, N.Y. in the Common Era 2017
1
All the lies of Trump and Sessions don't matter: lies are a diversion from the crimes they actually committed and the horrible policies they continue to implement. So what if they lie? Neither Sessions nor Trump will be removed because of their lies, in fact Sessions is likely to be rewarded with a seat in the US Senate for his lies.
How laughable are Sessions' "I do not recall" answers?
Imagine if Bill Clinton had answered, "I do not recall having sex with that woman." I'm sure that Bill had a very busy agenda and it would be very easy to forget something so unimportant as that. Would they have asked Bill to take a lie detector test?
2
Session's performance is a classic case of "killing the clock" with an added dose of smarm reinforced with his cutesie smirk. Aside from his smooth acting is the apparent disrespect for the process and the institution. My only next questions to him would have been: "Do you actually believe anyone is buying this?" and "Why do you have so little respect for Congress and those of us who were elected to represent our constituents?"
5
Why does he take his smarminess and evasion to the very institution from which he emerged? Take a guess.
1
Clearly, Sessions is either senile or lying. Either and maybe both should disqualify him from the AG seat.
7
all of these people need to be prosecuted, convicted, and executed.
4
I have no recollection of that meeting, nor of that fellow Papadapalous.
But, when he started to mention setting up meetings with the Russians, I know I must have told him to sit down and shut up...
6
To understand Sessions one only needs to look at who is running for his vacated seat from the GOP. Just another "southern gentleman" who defends his honor. That is if honor includes lying through ones teeth, molesting children, all the while claiming to be a christian. Where are the bolts of lightening when we need them?? Both of these "southern gentlemen" need to crawl back under the rock from whence they came. People of Alabama need to wake up!! Actually read the democratic platform and stop listening to the lies on talk radio. No one is taking away your guns. Try being a christian longer than one hour a week.
4
This episode has gone from a bad dream to a nightmare. Just when you think things can't get anymore absurd an idiot like Sessions gets a national forum to display his incompetence. When he moves his lips he is either eating or lying. It's enough to drive an atheist to prayer.
5
What does Jeff Sessions and Roy Moore tell us about the people in Alabama? Sessions is so crooked I don't know how he walks and Moore's reputation for his obsession for little girls has been known for decades. CNN interviewed a lady in Alabama who said, "Just let us vote and you'll see that we're not all rednecks." I hope she's right.
5
Jeff Sessions is a liar, pure and simple, same as Don Trump.
5
The funny thing about conservatives and Republicans going after the Clintons is that they think the left gives a hoot. Obviously investigating and impeaching Hillary Clinton is what the Republicans would be doing if she had won. But she’s not president! Go ahead. Investigate your rotten hearts out. Who cares? If you find something, fine.
Also, Sessions has to go. The guy is plainly lying under oath. Is there no shame? Of course not. What am I️ saying.
4
We should believe him. After all, I hear he has a copy of the Ten Commandments hanging in his office.
2
Yes, and I have an ice cream maker that I haven't used once.
2
when will I see a real headline: Attorney General Lies Some More
4
If you have these signs of dementia, see you doctor immediately.
5
lol, memory or Altzheimers?
4
Keebler Syndrome.
2
We have literal traitors walking the halls of government installing incompetent white supremacists where they can and dismantling anything left behind. The system is irreversibly broken. What a sad and pathetic country we have become in 12 short months.
5
Sessions is lying. Repeatedly. Under oath. And he's the Attorney General.
Congress is working on taking health care away from millions and raising taxes on the middle class to give the very rich big tax breaks.
Our so-called POTUS is an ignorant pathological liar who might be a Russian puppet.
Our country is in very serious trouble.
5
i can't decide if he should be arrested for perjury of if he should resign as AG due to his apparent Alzheimer's.
6
The entire administration lies or doesn't remember!
Attorney general Sessions is a perfect fit for this administration!
The prisons are filled with criminals who didn't remember their crimes!!!
Lock them all up!!!
4
What a pathetic display that was. Sessions appeared nervous , looked awful with bloodshot eyes that darted all over and his smirking , squirming wifey behind him listening to the IDK's pile up. Resign now.
3
Jeff Sessions is- not only a pathological liar- he is far more dangerous than Donald Trump. The U.S. Department of Justice (and) Attorney General welds more power to shape our individual freedoms than a president. We've already seen how this man has eroded the Court's ability to use its autonomy in applying sentences for drug offences (See- Sessions orders Judges to apply harshest drug sentences(May 12, 2017 New York Times). His confirmation was a travesty and all who voted knew of his dangerous mindset based on the previous refusal to appoint him to a federal Judgeship years ago.
Justice-by-hell fire-and -brimstone mentality cannot coexist in a Separation of Church and State Democracy- yet, here we are. The selective memory deficit requires an indictment to get this monstrosity parading as an impartial Attorney General as far away from us as possible.
The website www.alternet.org has two videos of Jeff Sessions'( responding to Representatives Hakeem Jeffries and Ted Lieu) memory deficits from his latest appearance wherein he skirts around his own harsh assessments of those who "Cannot Remember." This is must-see- and hear for anyone doubting the danger of this individual remaining U.S. Attorney General: Mueller must indict.
4
That a racist supremacist and liar like Sessions is at the head of the Attorney General's office talks about the enormous crisis of values and politics that the United States is experiencing ...
5
The NYTs providing cover for the Clinton Syndicate once again.
Trump campaign ties to Russia? Where are they? Proof seems to be the ties were with Clinton through Fusion GPS.
1
Since he cant remember anything and didn't have an answer to any of the legal questions the Democrats asked him, maybe it is time for Sessions to retire. It was enjoyable to watch him squirm as he was unable to answer anything, but was able to provide minutes worth of babble to run out the 5 minute clock. I loved the questions about why did the department hires equal 91% white male and why did he have a paper drawn up about black violent groups from decades ago, but didn't address the violent white supremacists and nationalist of today. Squirm, squirm, squirm, he would have to get back to the committee.
4
He is a liar. He is lying to Congress, and is a perjurer.
5
I guess it is part of America's greatness again, that being attorney general is thought of as appropriate therapy for senility.
4
The I-cannot-recall AG is as daft as the man he works for. Facts and logic are neither men's forte, nor for the ones that voted for Herr Drumpf.
Reading foreign news papers, the US has indeed once more become the butt of the joke across the world. Unfortunately these jokes include the fear that the US has a mentally challenged wannabe autocrat at its helm, one that might just use some big shiny objects going booooom on foreign shores because SC Mueller is nipping more and more at his bone spurs.
7
I'm tired of these guys. They're all liars, frauds, child molesters, thieves, racists, misogynists, bullies, harassers, rapists, abusers, money launders, gangster-loving, narcissists, ignorant, arrogant, idiotic, moronic, treasonous, sadist, unbalanced, erratic, unhinged, juvenile, low brow, self-centered, hateful, homophobic, utterly destructive, incapable of empathy, uncaring, vengeful, spiteful, devious, evil, unintelligible, amoral, spineless, stupid, stupid boring thugs.
I'm really tired of them.
6
The NYT sure took it seriously on April 23, 2015 when it ran a front page article on the State Department, run by Hillary Clinton, approving the sale of Uranium One (controlling 20% of the US Uranium supply) to the Russians about the same time that Uranium One gave $2.35 million to the Clinton foundation.
Has anyone noticed that since the election, donations to the Clinton foundation have dropped off a cliff. Wonder why?
Now one scandal has nothing to do with the other, but the truth is:
If Hillary has won, we’d all be talking about Uranium One and other Clinton foundation deals instead of whether the Trump campaign met with the Russians about Hillary’s missing e-mails.
2
I don't know, Editors of this fine newspaper. I still recall your enthusiasm for yellow cake uranium, even if you don't remember.
1
session is a liar just like his boss and apparently mentally incompetent to hold any job, based on his faulty memory.
3
Didn't Martha Stewart go to prison for lying to FBI agents???? But, she's just a Woman and a Democrat. Never mind.
6
Could should a poor memory be a sign of senility making Mr. Sessions unfit for the job?
3
Did the Times write an editorial castigating Hillary "I don't recall" Clinton?
1
When AG Lynch falsely testified that she and Bill Clinton had a one hour conversation only about their golf game and grand kids days before Mrs. Clinton's unrecorded FBI interview was to take place, this editorial board was silent. America knew the fix was in, that Hillary would escape prison and they were properly outraged enough to send her back to wherever she came from. The hypocracy of this page is palpable. Even the spineless James Comey, nobody's standard bearer for truth and justice, knew the fix was in. So spare us the sermons NYT's!
1
Has the Times expunged the word LIAR from its style and usage book? Guilt to an absolute certainty is not even the threshold standard for execution. As it relates to proof of lying, if Session's performance did not far exceed the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt then doubt and reason have become mutually exclusive!
C'mon New York Times! You're the paper of record!! Don't be complicit in untethering our Ship of State from the moorings the keep it from going wildly adrift. While absolute truth, like absolute certainty, is an unattainable ideal we must insist that we strive with all our collective might to reach its nearest approximation. By refusing to clearly label lies lies you're enlisting this Fourth-Estate paragon in the legions of those now attempting to render this necessary striving toward truth futile.
C'mon New York Times! Don't let trump spook you like that. Please!!!!
2
The grabbing old putrid party has to divert attention from their boss and minions who are all crooks. So bring up old trash to deflect from the fact that Sessions lied to congress.
3
Whether he remembers or not, meeting with a Russian Ambassador as a sitting US Senator and/or Republican campaign surrogate is a crime under Federal Penal Code 2b.6.1F, with a penalty of no less than 7 years in Federal prison. Session should be charged and arrested and put on trial for his misdeeds. If found guilty, and the evidence is obvious and clear, he should be given the maximum sentence.
4
I can't think of a single Republican in Congress who doesn't impress me as a fawning sycophant of psychopaths.
4
Me. Sessions, we have it on good authority that you ate at a restaurant in Georgetown on September 8, 1987.
Do you deny eating in Georgetown on that date?
Your server, Tatiana, was a Russian.
But, of course, you knew that because you like colluding with Russians, correct?
Meanwhile Democrats want to pretend that Hillary apparently didn’t even know that Russian crooks sent $145 million dollars over to her and Bill. And the Democrats could care less.
1
Perjury or dementia. Take your pick.
5
Poor Jeff. Has anyone noticed the number of Trump appointees who seem to have early onset dementia?
4
Oh come on folks! That poor man is senile?
1
When you are fully aware that the majority is absolutely
desperate to pay off its lenders/bribers with the
current tax cut cut cut plan, you realize as well that
said majority has neither interest nor stomach for pushing
too hard on little matters like truth telling and lying.
Indeed, said Senate majority was completely capable of neutering
ACA via its version of a tax cut plan, thereby daring its few "dissenters"
to play along for the sake of unity and keeping the money faucets
open for next year. A power play like that can only make one
gasp at its impressive level of cynicism.
So, you just plan on embarrassing yourself in MSM post
testimony summaries by saying as meekly as possible, and
in the gentlest of accommodating tones, the only thing
that you really can say, namely, "I forget", "I forgot", "I will always forget", and expect zero reprisal among your former colleagues in the majority.
So it is just an unfortunate game to play with the all
the expected responses among democrats and MSM reporters on
the one hand, and all the expected indifference among
allies and F-x faux. In the meantime your friends and allies will yawn
or shrug shoulders, which suffices since they're in the
(amoral) majority that wants/really needs just one big
thing before Dec. 31.
So, in the end, nothing will really change which is all
that matters.
Until it does, if ever, which is when the excrement will hit the fan.
Why would the majority have any problem with little matters like truth telling and lying when they're using those little matters with every breath they take and every utterance when they proclaim their tax "reform" and tax cut proposals are geared toward enriching the middle class when they're not?
1
Bill Clinton couldn't remember that he had sex with a 21-year old intern in the White House.
1
What are you forgetting NYT editors? How about mounting evidence in the Uranium-one deal or the missing 33,000 e-mails on her unsecured private server or the blatant takeover of the DNC by Hillary's campaign. Those Hillary deals will not go away, they are being investigated and the closer the investigators get the more likely we will hear the scared birds sing and squeal and what's left of the Democratic Party turn their back on "BJ" and Hillary.
3
This guy looks so stupid, you just want to punch him in the face.
How in God's name did he become Attorney General?
Seriously, somebody tell me.
5
Keebler is just another party favor from Donald's bottomless gift basket.
2
"I have no recollection" of that. Evoking more memories of Watergate. Time will tell if there are even more similarities.
4
What is more troubling than he blatant lying, but that the AG is making light of individuals with Alzheimer's. He either has it, which makes him unfit for the highest law enforcement position in the United States. Or, he think he can get away with lying to Congress, which makes him unfit for the highest law enforcement position in the United States. Or, he knows he will get a pardon, which makes him highest law enforcement position in the United States and we need term limits.
4
He is trying to 'Do A Reagan'
3
Nixon famously told the Watergate conspirators: "You can always say you don't remember." Didn't work out so well for any of them, even if it took a few years for the process to unfold.
5
Does an alternative truth have to be a lie? One might simply not prefer the reality-based version of the truth. Some people find it too painful to think about the Bowling Green Massacre. Furthermore, the problem is devious people asking trick questions. When I said "no," I was answering the question of whether I think we should drop the idea of investigating Hillary Clinton. The fact that It was a question about collusion with the Russians proves this is a witch hunt, and I'm the victim. Anyway, I either told the truth or didn't understand the question, and I can't remember which.
1
I'm surprised that Jeff Sessions didn't just sing out his responses using the lyrics from Peter Gabriel's 1980 hit song "I Don't Remember":
"I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything at all
I don't remember, I don't recall
I got no memory of anything ... anything at all"
I guess he forgot the lyrics.
5
"Lack of candor" is not a crime but is a basis for disciplining and sometimes firing Justice Department employees, such as FBI agents who have not told "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Since the Attorney General is not only a political appointee but also our Nation's chief law enforcement officer, should he or she be held to the same standard?
4
If Sessions can't remember what happened last year (and I'm giving him the big benefit of the doubt that he's telling the truth), it certainly raises the question of his mental capability to lead the Justice Department.
7
His inability to remember things that are central to his duties would seem to disqualify him for public office.
6
One thing I do know about successful people is that almost all of them have excellent memories and recall, it is a requirement to success. Mr. Sessions is lying, pure and simple.
8
No fan of Sessions cannot ask this simple question: why would there not be an agenda and minutes from the organizational meetings and events he attended from which he could readily refer to perk up his memory? He comes from a culture that maintains a scrupulous written record, and the party's apparatchiks from the sacrosanct business world do the same (unless, of course, they are hiding the cash in the mattress in the condo in the Caymans). The answer is easy, no record means easy deniability; for the movie fans in the crowd, think of Paulie in Goodfellas as he assiduously avoids the telephone. Sessions critics do need to calm down about his independent recall, though. Even without the slander of assuming a cognitive decline, the memory lapses are understandable. The greater question should focus on the fact that the lack of record keeping seems to create the impression of a political party operating as if it were an extended organized crime family.
3
One of the things I learned from Iran-Contra is that while lying is purjery, a crime, 'I don't remember' is legal. Further, a witness cannot be charged for refusing to answer a question if "I would like to answer, senator, but I cannot remember well enough to be sure" is a legally acceptable evasion.
Sessions knows what he is doing (and what he did).
4
It would be a benefit to the American taxpayers if the Republicans had to pay as they go for their Clinton investigations
They could take it out of RNC funds (or all that sticky oily fossil money they get) and then apply for reimbursement if one of their shiny, distracting fishing trips actually finds what they originally set out to prove.
Come to think of it, I'd like their salary clawed back during all the time it took them to make 60 purely-symbolic votes against Obamacare.
1
It would be appropriate also for the GOP to receive reimbursement for the cost if they find criminal acts in Hillary Clinton’s foundation.
Ha!
It appears Sessions lied under oath during earlier testimony. He's obviously not going to admit to it, and it would be difficult to prove. But John Mitchell, Nixon's AG, went to jail, and perjury was one of the charges (backed up by tapes). If Sessions chooses to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton he will be directly implicated in what is arguably obstruction of justice, a political action seeking to undermine Mueller's investigation.
2
The "I recall" and "I don't recall" answer to a question is often used to protect oneself from incrimination. It's intentionally indefinite, especially when used repeatedly. Sessions uses this tactic every time there is an opportunity to do so. If you were to ask him if he is Jeff Sessions, I wouldn't be surprised if his knee jerk answer was "I do recall that I am Jeff Sessions".
2
There must be a brain (being charitable) sapping virus loose in the justice department. With no baseline testing for mental problems, it is impossible to say for certain that AG Sessions is brain damaged as a result of serving the Trump Administration. But something sinister is obviously at work. "Father, I don't recall whether I axed the cherry tree", isn't the message we want our children to grow up with. The memory problem at justice was on vacation for a while, but now it's returned. AG Gonzalez also had memory issues. " Unless you have a document to refresh my memory...". Sessions could have leaned into the old, "forty years ago is clear as a bell, but last week is a blur". Worked for my grandfather for years. Or, you can just look at his expressions and listen to that, "good night ladies", drawl and realize that, by golly, nobody is home.
So, now, “I don’t recall” has become a euphemism for invoking the Fifth Amendment.
1
Didn't we already go through this... "I don't recall. I can't remember" routine with Alberto Gonzalez? It's such a stale, predictable performance tactic at this point.
2
Upon rereading this editorial piece, again, and speaking for myself, I can not help but be discouraged, disheartened, and downright frightened for our country. It seems that lies and "memory loss" are our political realities. How on earth do we fight this administration or a Republican-led Congress which aids and abets what appears to be criminal behavior by its lack of action or relentless diversions?
Perhaps we can begin to understand why there are so many refugees fleeing from oppressed countries. No, we are not there...yet. We still have a strong Constitution, and the majority of Americans still think and have their eyes wide open. But in my lifetime, 72 years, I have never witnessed such a corrupt and amoral presidency along with seemingly unethical appointees, i.e., Sessions and company.
6
Who knew 'trying to recall' would be so difficult.
Representative Pramila Jayapal: "It's difficult to take your assurances under oath." How can we possibly have an attorney general--the head of the justice department--who himself cannot be believed under oath?
2
i can't help thinking that in every meeting I attend I usually take notes. Not always complete, but I see others in the meeting taking notes. It's how meeting attendees remember what was said, agreed to, and what individual actions people will take after the meeting. It is fundamental to business. With a room full of deal makers and business stars am I to believe that no one in these meetings took any notes about anything. I don' want to see Donald Jr.'s tweets. We need to see the personal notes and minutes of these meetings.
3
Let's not be misled by the "there was so much confusion in the campaign" memory excuse. Meetings are called for just that reason--to memorialize decisions, responsibilities, positions, etc. Meetings solidify memories.
15
I worked in the Alabama Attorney General's Office when Sessions was the Alabama Attorney General. While I did not have that much contact with him, from what I did have with him he seemed to me a person whose self-conception was of one who would put principle and duty over personal interest and desire; being such a person he would work hard to convince himself, and others, that his personal interests were consistent with his duty. I was involved, directly or indirectly, in several situations where he was unable to do this and was forced to do something that he did not want to do. In these situations he would become angry, perhaps at being unable to present himself as a person of integrity. This is consistent with his posture before Congress, where he seems indignant at the suggestion that he would lie.
15
I have noticed during televised hearings and press conferences Sessions appearing barely able to contain his contempt when questioned by a woman or by a man of color; be they fellow Congressperson or journalist, the change in his demeanor and tone is chilling.
1
If he can't recall maybe he should resign. It's embarrassing to have an Attorney General with a memory problem. It could pose some interesting difficulties when it comes to upholding the law of the land because he might be upholding a faulty memory.
36
This whole Administration seems to share a case of "collective amnesia." Too bad it can't spread to the rest of the country, so we can forget that Trump is President.
18
I'm one progressive-minded voter who would welcome an honest investigation of Clinton, as I expect she would herself. Get the facts out, and let the American people see them and decide for themselves once and for all. Our nation is currently floundering in a political swamp, and the rest of the world, particularly those nations who stand to gain from this situation, are not standing pat. If in fact there is anything to these repeated and tiresome allegations, we need to address them. if, however, as reason leads one to expect after Benghazi, Whitewater, etc., there is "no there there", and especially if Mueller's investigation reveals provable wrongdoing, it is incumbent on the American people to recognize the current GOP for what it is, and to deal with it accordingly. To do less is to greatly endanger our system of democracy.
8
This comment is intellectually strange and more than a little dishonest. Where has the writer been for the past several decades? Did they have news there? How can the writer not know that the Congressional Republicans conducted a years-long investigation of Clinton and Benghazi? A years-long investigation of Whitewater? We have suffered under decades of such politically motivated show hearings, which have done a great deal of harm. They were highly adversarial investigations that made public everything that was found. We may contrast this with the present Congressional Republican investigations vis-à-vis Mr. Trump, which have been intentionally and shamefully ineffective, even though an adversarial power has interfered with our elections and, more likely than not, conspired with our president.
1
No person in their right mind who has not committed a crime would welcome an investigation just to satisfy those who cannot seem to distinguish truth from fiction.
Seriously? Like the nine investigations of Benghazi? BTW, Mr Gowdy, where is the investigation into the sketchy niger incident? Was general Mattis sleeping when they were killed and the guy's body was left for two days? The supposed uranium deal treason was anything but treason. It has been investigated. She had zero to do with it. It is a so-called "nothing burger". We in the USA do not as a rule criminally prosecute our former political opponents even when they actually commit (war) crimes like the bush administration torture boys. The problem isn't trump. Trump just pulls down the curtain revealing the anti-intellectual, anti-science, white supremacist, misogynist, fake religiosity of the republicans.
1
Sessions added a new interpretive dimension to the liar's handbook:
He conditioned his replies with one:
"I have answered every question as I understood them"
Alleging a misunderstanding of the question is not a defense for a lie.
23
He often misunderstands the questions. By the time the question is asked, he somehow twists it around and answers a different question. It doesn't seem to be deliberate because his answers aren't always helpful to him. His testimony is fascinating. I do get a little distracted by thinking of that impish SNL character.
7
"That’s what’s so alarming: the push for the Justice Department to undertake a politically motivated investigation of a president’s political opponent, and purely as revenge for an actual investigation already underway."
This is nothing less than an attack on the fundamental principles of our democracy.
25
What about Trump and his administration is not an attack on the fundamental principles of our democracy? That cringe-worthy cabinet meeting in which most of the secretaries tripped all over themselves to praise Trump in a manner worthy of governments led by powerful dictators set the tone for this administration. And revealed who both he and they really are.
4
Not revenge... distraction.. pure and simple. Something else to throw on the news cycle rather then the GOP/Prez
1
Mr. Sessions, who has said things under oath on three separate occasions which have turned out to be untrue, should carefully consider that he will not be Attorney General forever. Might a future AG be inclined to explore charges of perjury? The President he serves is wildly unpopular and there is considerable reason to believe that his official actions may be illegally benefiting his private business interests. This isn't a slippery slope; it's a cliff.
23
There's no perjury here. If you look at the questions and answers together in context there is no evidence of any intent to mislead. The New York Times has selectively quoted only portions of the transcript. That's misleading, not the testimony.
1
How can someone who has faulty recollections of so many events in such a short span of time be considered a professional? If any of us, at our everyday jobs, had such inelastic synapses, we would be relieved of our positions immedidately.
26
Taking Sessions at his word, and giving deference to his testimony, one must ask, what is it that made him believe it was necessary to recuse himself?
Based on the record extant, Sessions contacts with Russians, his direct knowledge and other information of miscreant behavior would not, in the minds of most I think, warrant recusal. Sooooooo the question is, what else is there that Sessions is not telling us?
8
No, the recusal doesn't indicate that there must be something more. It is actually quite straightforward. Sessions was an integral part of the Trump campaign therefore he cannot be the person heading any investigation of allegations against that campaign. His guilt or innocence plays no role.
2
He recused himself because he was part of the 2016 campaign, which is being investigated.
1
Is it possible that what we are seeing is a man in cognitive decline? He seems to be showing signs of dementia if we are taking him seriously. He needs a full neurological evaluation to determine his actual memory ability and to rule out that his memory loss is selective. Nanzi
11
I thought this was an article about Jeff Sessions.
Oh wait, that's who you meant? Sorry, I assumed you were talking about his boss.
And then there is the important question of determine if his memory is too impaired for someone serving as Attorney General.
11
Although it may come as a surprise to those of us who like to think we have perfect recall, the truth of the matter is that the reliability of human memory is subject to many external factors. In fact, there are so many direct and indirect causes of faulty memory, that I'll just recommend to anyone interested in crucifying Mr. Sessions that you simply Google the phrase "Effects of stress on human memory."
I know it may seem shocking to discover that our whole criminal justice system is based on such an unsound premise, but it turns out that truth is a relative term, affected perhaps, as Scrooge would say, by a bit of "underdone potato".
3
You're right. Very few people have "perfect recall". OTOH, very few people in positions of immense responsibility have the kind of memory that fails quite as selectively as Jeff Sessions' does when he's on the spot. Over and over and over.
2
C'mon America. The world is watching.
Enough is enough. We're better than the warped morals and destructive agenda of the GOP.
Let's not let this party destroy our country for generations. We have the power to make the GOP a minority fringe party and allow them to wander in the political wilderness until they can come to their senses.
12
Spiraling ever closer to a police state out of pure greed. Never in my lifetime would I have imagined the United States Constitution being tossed in the trash like yesterday's garbage. Unbelievable.
23
Dear Jefferson Beauregard Sessions:
I don't blame you for getting incensed at the implied and express allegations of dishonesty on your part, by committee members. I can only offer one simple suggestion to bring it to a stop: Quit lying.
Yours truly.
19
A malignant Elf. Apologies to actual elves.
10
Of course he remembers everything, he lies through his teeth. He, trump, Trum's sons, and his whole administration are all cut from same fabric. Dishonest and disloyal to the country.
16
If he can only remember when the news comes out about what and when he talked about Russia, he is either stonewalling, or is so inept he should not be AG .... either way, a another pathetic degrading of an American institution..... you would almost think Donald was installed by a foreign government to take down America from within.... hmmm
14
Jeff Sessions is a man who can't remember anything until the media reminds him and then he has a short burst of memory about the only thought that would save his slop.
So do we have an Attorney General with selective Alzheimer or a liar?
How can you remember what you said to George and not remember meeting him even though you sat only 7 feet away from him at a meeting with less than 10 people.
Liar, Liar pants on fire.
9
Mr. Sessions obviously is suffering with dementia. I think his retirement is in order.
10
Many people say that Sessions has a sign in his office behind his desk that reads, "The justice stops here."
9
"I don't recall" is a non-partisan response. As I recall, Hillary used that response over 20 times when talking to the FBI.
2
Was this editorial about Attorney General Hillary Clinton? I must have missed that part.
2
@Catherine: Your statement ("As i recall, she couldn't recall") only serves as proof that your recollection is as faulty and illogical as that of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
1
I don't recall. :)
Lotts of non recall of incidences, so maybe our attorney general is developing dementia, for surely he wouldn't lie.
3
Sessions duplicity as an elected official was well established. As an Alabama voter I never supported him or the Republican Party due to the constant lying to voters about what they would do if elected which is always the opposite of what they did when they were actually elected.
8
Don't you folks get it? "Law & Order" only applies to the Little People. ...
4
This is how it began with Watergate. John Mitchell anyone?
4
At what point does Jeff Session's chronic inability to remember significant recent events raise questions about his ability to serve? He is 70 years old - perhaps he is clinically senile. Dementia would be a better explanation than any of the explanations he gave the Senate while under oath. How can he possibly perform his job effectively if he is so thoroughly unable to recall anything?
5
If, which is extremely obvious, Sessions is being republican (read: conservative) controlled, he should be removed and prosecuted for breach of duty to ALL US citizens, and NOT just those who are centrist, or on the left. If his memory, as he repeatedly claims, he should be removed from office immediately, and put out to pasture, as anyone who displays this type of Alzheimer-like symptoms should NOT be allowed anywhere near the job as top Justice dept official. Either way: fire the jerk!
4
Doesn't Mr. Sessions realize that every time he tells a lie, god kills a kitten.
2
If the EB would deal with facts rather than their partisan rhetoric and cherry picked information they might have some credibility outside of the Times echo chamber and Carlos Slim.
First, there are many issues surrounding the Clinton's and the 2016 campaign and her tenure as SofS that need to be addressed. Of course, there may be nothing there except smoke. But we know if a republican lights a cigar, the EB calls it arson.
Second, you can twist Sessions' words, but the contacts with the Russian ambassador were 1) in his role as senator and 2) in passing at a gathering with other ambassadors where Sessions gave a speech. You know that and you know his response at his confirmation hearing to a question by Senator (really?) Franken was re collusion and not if he ever spoke to a Russian. And if he didn't initially remember details of a meeting in which a low level campaign worker proposed a meeting with Putin -- which he shut down -- so?
As for investigating HRC, we need to know, to start:
1) Who contributed to the Clinton foundation and why, particularly foreign interests. Where did the money go?
2) Uranium One -- why did we sell Uranium to Russian interests? What about the bribes? Who knew? What happened to the investigation of the bribes
3) Bill's speech $$$, particularly for Russia.
3) Who initiated FBI probe into Russia-Trump? Why?
4) Unmasking.
5) How was/has the Trump dossier used.
6) Bill Clinton & Lynch on the tarmac. Why?
... there's more.
Franken: "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?"
Sessions: "Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians and I am unable to comment."
4
Your "First" response is not on point. We're talking about Sessions, but you're still talking about Clinton? You *do* know that those matters have been investigated - relentlessly - and that there's no "there" there, don't you?
Your "second" response mis-states facts we know are in evidence. You are not entitled to your own facts, no matter how much you wish they were true.
And your third response, "investigating HRC", is longer than your first and second, and where your real focus is. You're nothing more than a troll that's trying to distract the people from the garbage can on fire that's right in front of them. "Look at this shiny object over here, people!" It's pathetic. If that's all you Trumpites haver at this point, the end is going to come a lot faster than many of us had hoped for!
So far we have yet to see one Trump campaign official who did not lie about Russia. You’re willing to chalk it all up to a misunderstanding, and yet so inquisitive regarding anything to do with HRC. Talk about an echo chamber...
1
It is apparent that Jeff Sessions must be examined by a reputable Neurologist and a reputable Psychiatrist as he has displayed all of the symptoms of a brain injury or disease. The other possibility is that Sessions has a psychiatric disorder.
Given the fact that Sessions answered “I do not recall” over 20 times and the Committee did not require him to answer regarding certain questions and then refused to “take the Fifth” or declare Executive Privilege, Americans are stunned to witness the willful destruction of our Government, the surrender of Legislative authority, and lawlessness by the Attorney General.
After the disastrous abdication of American authority and integrity byTrump to Xi and Putin in Asia, Trump’s admiration of the murdering tyrant Duterte, the world trembles to witness our democratic institutions and our democracy rot from within.
There are NO checks and balances.
6
Echoes of another AG, John Mitchell. And he ended up in the slammer.
4
Does Sessions think that the entire American electorate is as dumb as the minority of voters who put Trump in office with the help of the Russians? Apparently he does. Only Trump voters can be taken in by Sessions obvious perjury before Congress. Lock him up!!
8
Forgetfully demented or an unethical liar. Hard to feel good about either running the justice department.
5
LIAR. It is a word. UNDER OATH> also words. He is not fit and was never fit to be attorney general! And now to go after opponents? We descend even further down the hole as 45 praises strong men around the world. Perhaps he is trying to ingratiate himself the same way he tried with his father!SAD!!!
1
The endless Republican attacks on retired Hillary Clinton remind me of "Snowball" from "Animal Farm."
3
Trey Gowdy and Jim Jordan want a full fledged investigation into Hillary Clinton's past -- again. E-mails, Benghazi, her use of a private server, paid speeches, illegal uranium deals, Vince Foster's death, Whitewater, her fainting spell at the 9/11 ceremony last year, you name it, there has to be something that they can trot out to put the president's possible treasonous activities with Russia on the back burner. And Loretta Lynch is not the AG anymore, Jeff Sessions is, but he shouldn't be. The Republicans on the committee gave Sessions a pass on his dishonesty and instead want to hound a defeated political opponent whose only sin is that her last name is Clinton and that she's a Democrat.
The rotten state of the GOP, with Roy Moore's former pastime of serial abuse of teenage girls in Alabama's back woods now dominating news cycles, Republicans are seeking any port in a storm. Hillary Clinton isn't crooked, as the president is fond of saying, but his Attorney General sure is, and his fellow Republicans know it.
11
Torturing the Clintons on merely trumped up accusations is so blatantly blowing smoke as the ever-more tiresome deterrent from Trump's real dishonest matters at hand. Stop wasting the resources of our government in misspent money and time just as Trump did by accusing Obama of wiretapping. His pattern of deflection is predictable, predatory, pathetic. You insult every decent American's intelligence.
And Mr. Sessions, shame on you. You have shredded your last scintilla of credibility, and for what? Your evasive behavior cries guilty! How do you look yourself in the mirror in the morning?
9
the only collusion we truly know about is/was by the Clinton campaign.
1. we know they paid/supported collusion in the production of the Trump dossier
2. we know they colluded with the DNC to freeze out an opponent
3. it's very likely the dossier was used by the previous administration to obtain wire tap warrants.
Why does the NYT and democrats not care to get to the bottom of these collusions?
Why don't you want to understand who arranged it? Set it up?
Was HRC aware of it? Was Podesta? Why is DSW still around?
It was your election and you don't care. Hard to understand, and then with Trump your apoplectic about it all. So inconsistent, so hypocritical.
1
You say "know", Jordan says "looks like", Sessions says, "Looks like is not enough to appoint a special council."
So if you possess actual evidence, I suggest you hot foot it down to the Justice Department.
Please stop offending the southern sensibilities of this forgetful man or he might get the vapors.
Sessions is in on the corruption and lies up to his eyeballs. Lock him up.
8
And is Attorney General Sessions a lying, dishonest, traitorous bigot, who would prohibit children from using medicine that has proven to relieve the painful symptoms of their debilitating diseases? I do not recall at this time.
2
To quote Al Franken's book: "Lies and the lying liars..."
1
Perhaps our Mr. Sessions is suffering from dementia, the same as Mr. Trump?
4
Jeff Sessions is either a liar or his memory lapses indicate the signs of senility. Either was he shouldn't be the attorney general. It's very sad.
4
As he is under oath, at what point is this man guilty of purgery?!
5
Commentary on the Sessions hearings signify the problem with our politics that overblows, conflates and often twists little things to sound big. Did Sessions collude with Russians? There is no evidence of such. He apparently ran into a couple and had casual conversations and forgot. We all forget about incidents that don't register as important and nothing has been reported to suggest those meetings were important. Second he forgot about telling Papadopoulos NOT to pursue his lame-brained idea. Instead of praising him for his good judgment, he's being castigated for shutting down the very enterprise he's being accused of endorsing! Ditto for Carter Page - some goof-ball you barely know wanders by to mention he's giving a speech in Russia . . . why should that mentally register among important issues?
Meanwhile on these same pages, the Times assails Republican Congressmen for raising their twisted obfuscations. But frankly, between the two - I as a card-holding leftist - am more irritated by the (high) likelihood that the Clintons gamed the system for their personal $ gain and my party for their power-lust.
Which is really more important? Yet the Times participates in the same kind of obfuscation (if Sessions did anything immoral or illegal I'll eat my shoe; he may be pre-senile, but he's no spy) that is so repugnant by the Republicans.
Both the left and the right need to knock it off and attempt intellectual honesty to bridge this ugly divide.
1
More likely, a "card holding" (LOL) Putinist.
Dear NYT Editorial Board, I don't recall you penning a similar editorial titled "Hillary Clinton doesn't recall" when HRC said 37 times (!) last year that she didn't recall various things related to her use of private server and deleted emails.
While articles such as this one are drumming up your echo-chamber of your most loyal fans, due to your lack of equidistance and neutrality in your coverage of left vs right, Hillary and Co Vs Trump and Co, you have lost the respect and trust of many independent readers like me, and allow me to remember you that we are 45% percent of the electorate.
3
Don't worry, I'll never forget the 45% of the 2016 voters (not the electorate since not all eligible voters did so) who fell for the big con, especially those who aren't aware of or care about the damage being to our institutions and values.
2
journalistic integrity has vanished from the Times -- not just on the editorial page.
Now 40%. And tomorrow??
1
Nobody beats Hillary in the "I don't recall" business.
2
Sounds like his memory is about on par with Hillary’s.
2
Maybe Sessions is a liar? Well, he's from Alabama. And he's in the Trump administration.
2
What does a liar do when confronted? He lies, of course.
3
He is lying, again.
2
Haul the weasel’s little body to jail...
And he has the title of Attorney General...
Let see if you go to Court as a defendant and say you do not recall.a few times. They will send you directly to jail... but not Beauregard!
3
It has been interesting these past 10 months to see white supremacy in action. That’s what the trump administration is—a study in white supremacy. Take Sessions, for example, he is the attorney general of the US, who lies under oath as he proclaims his veracity. He oversees the FBI, but doesn’t read their reports about alleged “black identity extremists” that target and kill police. (They don’t exist.) He doesn’t remember and doesn’t recall; he may or may not appoint a special counsel to investigate trump’s political opponent. Yet this sneaky little liar continues to collect a nice, fat government paycheck. trump has filled his administration with unqualified, primarily white male loyalists like Sessions and Perry and Mnuchin and . . . White supremacy, mediocrity, and ineptitude go hand in hand.
7
It's more than appalling that a nation supposedly built on principle and faith and discipline would tolerate an amnesia defense from the Attorney General that would earn an average four year old a time out.
Did you break the vase?
No.
Your mother saw you do it.
I don't nomember.
Well, here's a video of you throwing it. Now, are you telling a lie?
No, cause, I don't nomember.
4
Nobody will do a day.
1
Three words: "Lock him up."
4
President Reagan was found to have Alzheimer's after he "couldn't recall" during the Iran-Contra hearings.
3
Didn't he keep a diary? (Subpoena that?)
2
What is wrong with Alabama to bestow on America the likes of Jeff Sessions and Judge Roy Moore? I know, I know, Alaska gave America Sarah Palin and Don Young...but Sessions and Moore take the cake.
6
Sure, let's investigate how Hillary Clinton used her power and influence to get millionaires to fund AIDS treatment in Africa — now that's real corruption. But using the power of the presidency to make money for your resort business, and coordinating with the Russians to swing the election, and making sure that your rich donors are rewarded with huge tax breaks at the expense of working Americans — that's all fine, it's the way business is done.
11
I don't understand how Jeff Sessions can claim he does not recall or did not know of trump campaign connections to Russians, and at the same time claim that he "pushed back" against campaign surrogates meeting with Russians?
5
Can a special prosecutor examine a legislative body as a coconspirator?
3
What is wrong with the Democrats? Can't they just call a liar a liar to his face? Sessions reminds me of John Ehrlichman of Watergate fame. He had no recollection of events either. And we all know what a liar he was. If Sessions caves in to Trump and the Republicans and appoints a special council to go after the Clintons, I am going to my bunker. The Russians will have won. They will have destroyed the rule of law in this country. And that means its every man for himself. Good luck and God bless America.
5
The focus on a Session statement that is inconsequential and meaningless highlights the issue as a partisan diversion of attention from real issues.
The Editorial Board has lost all perspective on the issues important to Americans.
Republicans appear to be following the advice of one of the most reviled strongman/thug/ murderer, Augusto Pinochet. Asked once indicted about his abhorrent human rights violations, his response was: " I don't remember, and it is not true. And if it is true, I don't remember".
3
I sometimes wonder how Hillary, the person, not the celebrity, deals with all this. She has a steady daughter, grandchildren, a footloose yet basically loyal and savvy husband, and she must have many friends, since people have said that she listens attentively.
But every time she finds that an outlaw band of disorganized, deceptive Republicans, led by Donald Trump, has stuffed yet another white pantsuit full of straw, put a soccer ball on top painted with her face and invited folk to come slam it with baseball bats and rackets, what does she do? (Probably not email.)
She knows that the leader of the gang, The Don, is an actual caricature, a straw man, a hollow man, and a pickpocket in league with other pickpockets ... like that little Keebler elf disciple who always looks startled.
If I were her, I would be scared to walk in the forest.
And in fact our nation looks so strange, so alien and lawless and mean lately that I am scared to walk in the forest.
7
Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III - a good ol' Alabama boy - would do well to leave Washington and run for Roy Moore's sinecure Senate seat. Moore is toast, Folks - Sessions isn't, yet.
2
Trump's nest of inept vipers corrupting our government lying to cover their own butts or to line their pockets or those of their cronies payback to come at a later on K street in the millions, Sessions self portrait of a law abiding unbiased attorney general belies his political background consisting of spin and double talk a obscure political hack tapped by an ignorant blowhard president to be our top lawman loyal to him alone not the country, The GOP chairman covered Sessions from answering tough questions again party before country the official m.o. of new GOP,
3
Bless your heart Mr. Sessions, you are a dishonest man without integrity.
4
Sessions is as solid as they come. Salvos from the most doctrinaire progressive mumblers are like throwing cooked peas at him.
Now, what we'd love to see covered here is the down low on Joe Biden's getting handsy around women and teen girls at get-togethers. Supposedly annual Christmas gatherings of his protective detail the past eight years came to an end because he tuned into a Roy Moore.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/11/exclusive-former-joe-biden-secre...
1
This man is the country's AG! He, and our wonderful system, would put other, less-connected men *in jail* for lying like he has done, multiple times.
Congress: It is fast becoming a joke to put people under oath, as you allow them to never answer questions, even without a claim of privilege, and to lie with literal impunity. Do you job and bring charges against this man for lying under oath!!
If Jeff Sessions were black, and he lied as obviously about selling $20 worth of drugs, he would be in jail right now and he would be the *first* person to put him there! I am disgusted ... he is not even a good liar.
5
Trump tweet for the day.
Sessions not good. Your Fired !
Calling Lorne !!
Kate McKinnon appointment pending! Baldwin in for Rex .
HUGE
1
mueller could- and should- investigate Sessions. Presumably, Sessions is already part of his exam of don jon.
3
Anyone think Sessions possibly has dementia? It's either that or he's a pathological liar. I'd prefer the first even though it's a very bad disease I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
3
In addition to being demented, Sessions has dementia.
2
Aw shucks. Some of us have good memories and some not so good. Maybe Jeffey has been smoking some weed and he doesn't remember much at all? Wait, I forgot, Jeffey thinks that marijuana is a gateway drug and he would never smoke it. Unless, he forgot...
3
National affairs has become one case of look-at-this-shiny-object after another. In this case, NYT ed board plays the dossier card hard, which is the least of this, while soft peddling the uranium deal, which remains an, excuse the language, swamp of unanswered questions that, frankly, can't be answered by the Clintons because they have demonstrated that they are incapable of being trusted to tell the truth on matters such as these. The real question on the uranium matter, regardless of politics, is this: Do we want to get to the bottom of this? I think the answer is yes. Even as someone who believes my poodle would be a better president than Trump, even as someone who thinks that Bill Clinton was the best president of the ten that have been in the White House since I've been alive, I think the answer is yes. And I have thought this since I first learned of the uranium deal in the news pages of NYT.
I hate it that it has come to this, but it has come to this. The public deserves to know whether the Clintons were enriched by abusing the public trust and laws governing 502(c)3's, and Obama sure as heck wasn't going to do it. The only way to accomplish this that I can think of is to appoint a special prosecutor with subpoena power. It would help a great deal if Trump would agree in advance to pardon the Clintons if they are found guilty of wrongdoing. But, by gosh, we need answers. This ain't Whitewater, the stakes are way, way more serious.
Jeff Sessions is L-O-Y-A-L. He just follows orders. God is his witness.
3
It is happening in Zimbabwe. Why not here?
Selective amnesia is running wild among Trump administration. Must be contagious.
2
It is now pretty clear that in the admitted daily “chaos” of the Trump campaign there were numerous lifelines thrown out to and from Russia operatives, WikiLeaks and campaign workers, including Donald Trump Jr. If anyone believes that Sessions “forgot” these events then they would believe just about anything, perhaps even that Roy Moore is a stellar human being and that Donald J Trump Sr is not really degrading the office of POTUS. What a travesty!
2
the bizarre split between republican and democratic questions directed at attorney general sessions is more worrisome than his evasions. worst of all, the country is probably just as skewed its representatives. if commonly held facts, beliefs and values are a thing of the past, why should the united states continue to exist?
4
I do not recall your honor!
2
I don't recall a lot of things but that's just old age. What's Sessions' excuse; that he's getting senile? Time to put him out to pasture.
3
The Republicans are like the frog in the slowly heating pot. They've had their heads in the sand for so long they don't realize our democracy is on the verge on dying with them.
2
My goodness, the GOP is such a motley crew. Sarah Palin can see Russia from her window, but Jeff Sessions cannot see the Russians in front of FACE.
Mr. Mueller, we are gravely WORRIED.
4
Sessions perjured himself before Congress when he said he had no contact with the Russians. Congress should focus on that and remove this creep from the Justice Department. His claims he doesn't recall are lies.
3
Sessions memory is so bad, he shouldn't be the AG
1
I don't know why Congress keeps torturing this poor old man, he obviously can't remember anything about his recent career except for random exculpatory scraps.
2
Watching Sessions yesterday reinforced my belief that some lawyers live in a cesspool of their own making. Sessions “could not recall” anything that might prove him legally culpable of being responsible. How many of us would let our five year old get away with that behavior. Question: “Did you hit your sister.” Answer: “I don’t recall.” Mom: “You’d better recall or else you better go outside and cut yourself a switch off that lilac bush!” Sessions needs some prodding to help him remember.
1
He supports Trump. What do you expect?
3
The lies never end, with no consequences. Trump and his band of lying liers keep making lying the new norm. Our country currently has no morals anymore.
2
That is some Attorney General we have.......he does not seem to recall very much. And he is supposed to be our Number One national law enforcer.............I guess he is lucky he has someone to drive him to and from his office every day, else no telling where he would be by now. On the other hand, that might not be so bad......
2
He keeps calling himself an honorable man while he told demonstrable lies. He is a minion, pure and simple.
3
“watch what we do, not what we say.” - John Mitchell, Attorney General, Nixon Administration
1
The classic Reagan excuse during Iran Contra.
Ollie North had to take the fall to cover his boss.
2
Scary thought....what's Sessions endgame? Why cow tow to the despicable nonsense of all things Trump ? Sessions obviously has decided to do whatever it takes to remain the A.G. , why ?
What's he really want out of it...? He's not doing this for Trump, he's doing this for something he wants out of it...what is that?
2
Neither party has a monopoly on sleeze. I am not party affiliated, and believe the Clinton foundation or Uranium deal should indeed be investigated - while Bill was Potus or while Hillary was in public office. To try it now when they are both out is obviously just more waste of tax payer money by the morally corrupt GOP in order to hold on to power!
Should an Attorney General, with a memory so repeatedly faulty that it suggests the onset of dementia or terminal dishonesty, remain in charge of the Department of Justice?
5
How about subjecting Jeff Sessions to a lie detector test? Or removing him for memory loss.
3
It is not lying; it just "depends on what your definition of 'is' is." The scary thing for me is that Mr. Sessions seems to be the most moral of the upper echelon of this administration; erratically moral, but he shines by comparison to the others.
1
Let's face it. After Eric Holder the bar for forthrightness by an AG has been set pretty low.
2
You think Holder was bad? He can't hold a candle to Loretta Lynch who had a "chance-meeting" with Bill Clinton on the tarmac of an airport in Arizona the result or which was the cessation of the investigation, which she told her FBI director to call "the matter", the very next business day.
Who is Attorney General Jeff Sessions client? And what to make of his selective recurring memory lapse?
After practicing corporate law for 35 years as in-house counsel for several Fortune 500 corporations, I defined the repeated "I don't recall" witness preparation claim as the incredible "gentlemen's lie". Watching and listening to otherwise highly competent professionally accomplished individuals dueling with their conscience and moral compass was an insightful look into human nature.
As corporate counsel my client was the corporation and it's shareholders. Not the corporations employees. Corporations are not people. But the limited liability legal fiction does not exist without people.
As Attorney General Jeff Session's client is supposed to be the American people, their Constitution and federal laws and their Executive branch. Session's is not the President's lawyer as an individual nor as an institution. The Presidency's lawyer is the White House Counsel. And the President has several outside private lawyers representing him in the Russia probe and other matters that potentially implicate him individually. The federal government is a legal fiction that acts only via real people.
Either Sessions was lying or he has senile dementia or some other serious mental health problem or he is an ignorant and incompetent lawyer. The ethical obligation of a lawyer is fealty to their client within the law while avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.
2
As usual these days there is a substantive disconnect between the headline and the body of this Times piece. Most of this editorial stretches to claim Attorney General push back on Congressional demands to investigate the Clintons and the Democrats. But then, after milking the Attorney General's testimony for all it's partisan fantasy worth, the editorial then turns on him to claim he should remember the most minor details of events that are only important in the eyes of extreme partisan distortions of the real world. If this reality distortion were confined to the editorial page, that would be bad enough. But today"s Times has obliterated any bright line between news and editorial. It has turned into the Something that makes the National Enquirer look more like the New York Times of old than it does.
In a related development Rep. Trey Gowdy (R) announced today that the House Judiciary Committee will investigate President Harry S.Truman's firing of General Douglas Macarthur. Gowdy commented that while he's 'wild about Harry' rumors of impropriety won't just fade away!
3
In late Autumn of 1974 I had the delicious pleasure of spending a day at the Watergate trial. HR Haldeman was being questioned by Richard Ben Veniste about the $350,000 slush fund that had been set up to keep the plumbers from talking. The headline of the Washington Post the next day was something to the effect that "Haldeman does not recall 40 times". Didn't ring true then either.
2
Doesn’t Mr. Sessions have an appointment calendar?
7
I wish someone would have lobbed some softball questions like " do you remember what you ate for breakfast Mr. Sessions"? "Mr. Sessions do you recall what your wife's name is? And someone on that panel should very clearly and loudly demand a mental health examination, Mr. sessions is clearly displaying signs of dementia.
1
Simply amazing to watch the Cannot-Remember Jeff Sessions suddenly remember with such clarity: He can ramble on in minute detail about event's he cannot remember- when confronted with his lies, then fain indignant with whines of unfairness: Where is Senator Kamala Harris to make him "Nervous" (again)?
1
Sessions in unfit and should be removed. But by who? Congress? One thing has become remarkably clear: Our government is turning into a pile of rubble. Sickness, death, justice, truth, honesty -- these words mean nothing. Maybe things will change once the Bone Spur in Chief launches the first nuke.
Pray that you're not down wind from that blast when it comes!
1
It really riles me up when people all of a sudden, when their testimony is about to be called into question, claim to need to jar their memories to recall important events, conversations and circumstances that almost all regular people would remember with absolute clarity.
This guy can't remember anything. He is not up to his job. He needs to gracefully retire.
Throw him a party, get him a watch, and bye-bye.
2
I have never before resented paying taxes, or paying lawmakers for their plush lives, health insurance, long vacations, and all. Now I hate the prospect of hard earned money going straight to lawyers and made up partisan games while the US population is largely neglected. This is the most dysfunctional, useless town I have ever seen.
2
Sessions reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live routine when the guys, when confronted says, "hey that was not me, I was not even there, I was in Iowa, no Oklahoma, ya that's the ticket." Was that a twitch under his right eye and didn't he have his fingers crossed on his right hand when he was being questioned.
2
I am a person with a law enforcement background and early on in my career I was taught that when a person or persons constantly answers questions with an I don’t recall answer. The person is most liking hiding something the don’t recall answers keeps that individual from perjurying him/ her self while giving testimony under oath. It’s the ole i am not saying yes and I am not sayin no.
1
so much easier to remember: "I plead da fif"
1
“My answers have not changed. I have always told the truth.”
Two sentences. Two lies.
3
We provide Mr.Sessions with a huge support staff to do his job. There are assistants, secretaries, agents, investigators, legal assistants, administrative assistants, drivers, as well as hundreds of others who could all 'jog' his memory. Surely he has a calendar or a planner of some sort. It is ludicrous to think that he is telling the truth. This lying should, and must, disqualify him from ever serving as an attorney of any kind again. Shame on you Mr Sessions.
1
Would the best response of the Democrats to the Republican mendacity and dissembling be nothing more than holding minority hearings that focus on Republican obsessions with Hillary, particularly the emails and 'Clinton Cash' (it seems that even the Grey Lady has found THOSE to be wasteful obsessions), then conclude the hearings with a motion to impeach Hillary?
How many Republicans could resist an opportunity to vote on impeaching Hillary, regardless of how feckless it would be, merely to be able to tell their donors that they did it?
(Where are Gilbert and Sullivan when you need them?)
2
Is there no recourse for this?
1
So...when do we storm the capitol? Having gone through all those Benghazi investigations, McConnell's ploy to foil the Garland appointment, tax plans and healthcare repeal to appease rich donors, and this latest sham to deflect Mueller's investigation with more Clinton investigations are we not convinced that democracy is just not working at the moment? I've got arthritic feet, but I'm ready to march.
P.S. Ohio voters: it's time to get rid of Mr. Jordan who seems to be a bigger shill for Trump than Nunes in CA.
3
"Nero" continues to play on the world stage and golf courses while democracy burns.
If you love America, past time to throw GOP as it exists out of Washington DC and state houses, vote, and support solving problems in our country.
2
Any other person displaying as much forgetfulness as repeatedly claimed by Mr. Sessions would have been declared suffering from debilitating amnesia , and then fired from the job. But then again, Session is trying to save Trump’s job too. In Mr. Sessions’ mind a little white lie about bad deeds is understandable, especially since he is doing it for the sake of the President of the US, and thus savings the country from the liberal barbarians at the gates the conservative citadel.
1
So what, Hillary Clinton could not recall anything she did or said as Secretary of State. Thank you.
1
Yeah, this is all about the Clintons, the favorite Republican squirrels.
It's time to flip the Attorney General.
1
Either Mr. Sessions is lying through his teeth (using his Southern accent in an attempt to hide such lying), or he has such a problem with his memory that we, the American public, should worry that he has early onset Alzheimer's. In either case, he needs to be removed.
2
Selective memory aka choosing which reality you want to live in. Trump lives in Fox TV land. Perhaps Sessions finds it more "American" to forget all the Russians and what his boss tells him to do.
1
Gawlee jeepers. I just don't seem to remember anything much except that them thar Clintons sure a mess. Trump and Russians? The campaign was such a mess how do you expect me to remember anything so trivial. Not sure anything much happened but suddenly there he was, President Trump. Jeepers. Not sure how I ended up here. But am sure it all was hunky dory.
3
Sessions needs to follow the Hillary Clinton model. Just say "I don't recall" as Hillary did a zillion times when interviewed by the FBI. You don't have to lie, but you don't have to tell anything either.
The Trump Loyalty Oath seems to take precedence over Trump's toadies' oaths of office.
Traitors to America, all of them.
2
Would he take a polygraph?
1
Mullins' "witch hunt" to ferret out Russia's co-conspirators to put Trump in charge of the nuclear codes is justly named. The etymology of "warlock" derives from the Old English wǣrloga meaning "oathbreaker" or "deceiver".
Sessions, by definition, is the Warlock President's warlock. As head of the justice department, he is a major player in election corruption, pleading memory lapses as his 5th Amendment.
1
Sessions should be impeached for lying under oath.
1
If electing Obama was a version of Reconstruction, what you are seeing is the rebirth of Jim Crow, which is where America "lives".
2
Wow, Beauregard, doesn't remember a whole lot when it pertains to Russian collusion. I wonder if he remembers his past racism? How convenient for him.
1
You need to cut him some slack, I mean I cannot recall if I had any meetings with Putin or any of his close associates last year. I do so many important things that I doubt a meeting with foreign statesmen to discuss treason would really make any imprint in my memory.
I don't know – does a man in his position really need a functional memory?
Maybe he should watch Memento and start writing notes to self?
He could maybe hire a secretary, someone that can document his activities and remind him about some basics. I would hate to see him at a press conference without any trousers on. I would laugh, but I would never be able to shake that sight...
1
I am reminded of what Mary McCarthy wrote of L. Hellman, "Every word she says is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'".
Every failure to recall of this administration is a lie...
1
Jeff Sessions would have remembered if something had happened, like if Trump had tried to show he could shoot someone and get away with it.
But you beleaguer the poor guy for not remembering a meeting where nothing happened, not even vodka or Russian dressing was served.
Jeff Sessions is growing taller everyday ya'll belittle him.
1
Hiring this man for any position of critical importance after watching him fail to do or say anything with any sense of credibility or intelligent understanding is a stretch, other than perhaps to play the role of a country preacher man in a Coen Brothers film. Yes perhaps then i could imagine this soft toothed ole racist piously blessing the lambs before throwing them in the wood chipper.
1
Sessions ? Moore ?
What is in the water in the beautiful state of Alabama ?
1
VP Pence headed the Trump transition team and he remembers less than Sessions which is hard to believe in of itself.
Would waterboarding help Mr. Mueller to get to the truth? It's not torture and it's effective. Just ask Bush 43, Cheney, and Fox News.
3
If you are looking for collusion, look no further. While DJT and his ilk lie brazenly, Republicans are further obfuscating these lies by starting fake investigations. And yet, these same Republicans have the gall to set a standard for truth for those accusing Roy Moore. Is it just an accident that the former predominantly includes Men in power, while the latter are mostly Women without power?
3
Again, as always, reporters say "he didn't recall." Why can't we just say the truth...he LIED. Plain and simple. If a child says he "doesn't recall" who broke your heirloom plate, would you reply, "ok, no problem"? We need to revise the dialog to call out these LIARS for what they are!
1
If Sessions can't recall much, then it's time to recall Sessions.
The Senate needs to stop playing this silly game of "What didn't you know and when didn't you know it?"
To paraphrase the late Martin Luther King, we all need to start judging Sessions as we judge Trump, not on the color of his skin or the veracity of his (highly selective) memory, but on the content of his character.
3
Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he is unable to fulfil the duties of Attorney General due to his failing memory
3
Jeffy Beau has no credibility- full stop. I get how one can forget what happened in 1970, but not 2016. Especially events that were of such a politically transformative nature in the campaign from chaos land. No Sessions is lying. He knows it, his fellow travelers like Jordan know it and in their hearts the voters in Donnie John Land know it. They just can't give it up and admit they were wrong. God won't let them and by god, he knows all.
2
James Comey kept a diary. Jeff Sessions kept nothing...and that includes, well, you figure it out. For such an important government post no diary is a no-brainer; unless you have something to hide.
2
Jeff Sessions's lapses of memory remind me of Jimmy Hoffa's lapses of memory when he was grilled by Senator Irving M. Ives of New York during the labor rackets committee hearings in the late 1950s. Mr. Hoffa was subsequently convicted of lying to the committee and sentenced to prison.
2
If his memory is this bad, he shouldn't even be the Attorney General. He's incapable of fulfilling the responsibilities of his job. Nor should he be a replacement for Roy Moore if he's elected. Sessions should simply be put out to pasture in Alabama.
2
The perjury committed by Sessions was overwhelmingly blatant and no doubt many were reminded by John Dean that Bob Haldeman went to jail for the exact same kind of memory loss!
4
Nothing will be done unless the citizens begin protesting LOUDLY, not just whimpering. Clinton is the least of our worries right now. The President's goons are blowing smoke and the public is breathing it in like perfume.
2
Be honest, please. The reason you all hate Sessions is because he isn't afraid to go after violent criminals who prey on American citizens.
I don't expect any more from Sessions, the unrepentant racist. But the Republicans in Congress do surprise me with their continuing fealty to Trump. Of course there is nothing more you can expect of the Trey Gowdy's and Louie Gohmerts and Darryl Issa's, a crew so dim and ignorant and craven that they make the clowns of Fox News look intelligent. But where are the Republicans in Congress who still have an ounce of honesty or shame? Even the allegedly upstanding few like McCain and Collins waffle and weave and try to avoid the truth: it's not just their slavish inability to say the truth about their fealty to the worst man ever to hold the office of president but also their complete inability to do anything but deny the most obvious science, steal from the middle class and give ever more to the richest of the rich. What a ship of fools they all are.
1
Two things:
1. It is the grin that comes with the lies. As if this Attorney General wants his insult to democracy and decency not to be misinterpreted: see folks, I know I am lying and I know that you know I am lying but still here we are. I can claim not to recall certain facts a hundred times and more and yet you can do nothing.
2. Tax returns do not lie. For the love of America, please Mr. Mueller, subpoena Trump's tax returns from the IRS and stop this madness.
2
He can't remember. His memory is shot. Time to retire. Throw him a party, get him a watch, show him the door.
2
A jail door for contempt of Congress.
1
It seems something is going around in Alabama---the "I don't recall" outbreak. You see it in elections, in public offices ---looks like it is spreading to the White House.
1
Imagine what a total mess we would be in if the President hadn't hired all the best people in the first place.
3
Should we consider this to be a second case of Sessions committing perjury in Congressional testimony or do we think he really can't remember something that should have been earth-shatteringly important to a sitting Senator?
If he is guilty of perjury, he should be removed and prosecuted. If he really can't remember, he should be considered mentally unfit for the job (perhaps he has alzheimer disease or some other medical malady that would make him unfit). Either way, he needs to be removed.
1
The editorial has it right when it states "what’s so alarming: the push for the Justice Department to undertake a politically motivated investigation of a president’s political opponent, and purely as revenge for an actual investigation already underway." we are in the world of McCarthy & Roy Cohn whence Trump derives. I would think that Trump will fire Sessions if he fails to oblige and get himself an even more subservient prosecutor. And then we will be in a dictatorship.
1
how does this man still have a job? how does Trump? are there ANY decent Republicans left?
2
Does he recall admitting he is a liar?
4
either he is lying - or - he actually suffers from chronic fogetfullness (as in signs of dementia?) BOTH worrisome for someone in his position. alas, I am getting numb to the sorry state of our national government. 3 more years of this is going to be intolerable.
1
Trump has best the standard that lying is ok as far as it can help the liar.
Session is following it.
1
Does it surprise anyone that Sessions is a lying AG?
It shouldn't. He was a known liar before his confirmation.
2
Uh, "with all due respect" ---Sessions is losing his memory---he long ago lost his integrity. And Trump is mentally unstable ---he long ago lost any basic sense and ethics. Yet the fate of millions of Americans is in their hands. Looks like they both need medical attention.
Could some sensible political group stage a needed coup d'etat? Oh, I guess I shouldn't say that. I take it back, lest I be investigated for this comment!
But our constitution and bill of rights can't protect us from these lying exploiters. No exaggeration.
1
It's absolutely amazing how selective memory can be. I can understand not remembering what was served for lunch at the meeting. But it was a FOREIGN POLICY MEETING, and he couldn't remember if Russia came up? It would be like him being in a domestic policy meeting and forgetting if crime or abortion or same sex marriage came up. I'd bet he would have remembered those matters with sparkling clarity. And the way he chuckles about the campaign's chaos is so convenient. If Hillary Clinton had answered questions for Congress that way, there would have been a gallows built that very day in front of the cameras. After all, they aren't going to stop until they can mount their trophy on the walls of Congress. But guys like Sessions , why he is just poor, little old guy with a little memory problem being picked on and misunderstood. "Why, we aint lyin' or chasin' after young girls. We are fah too busy lookin'out for the American people and tryin' to do God's work . Jail cells were meant for Democrats. Not lil' ole Republicans like us." Republican hypocrisy. Available daily on a TV near you.
3
My elderly mother and my teenagers both had better memories than Jeff Sessions. Does he really think we are gullible enough to believe his statements?
I can imagine him talking to his own elderly mother and his teenagers.
"Mom, the postman did not steal your wedding ring."
"Please, the dog did not eat your homework."
1
He lied under oath, repeatedly. He should resign from his post and face prosecution for perjury and treason.
4
Where are the notes from Session's campaign meetings? Someone certainly must have them.
3
Am I the only one disturbed that the head of our nation's justice department has such a selective, faulty memory?
Ooops, almost forgot - he's just pathologically lying like the rest of the administration.
3
-
He does have to recall. The GOP controls the House, Senate, & WH.
That’s what happens when liberals and/or progressives don’t vote.
2
It appears that Attorney General Sessions read the play book written by William Jefferson Clinton by stating numerous times that he “ does not recall” This strategy clearly worked for President Clinton and appears to be working for Jeff Sessions as well.
Perhaps this is the strategy we all should remember to employ if we face similar circumstances. Lol!!
This Alabama product is hard to bear. As a European I have problems to understand how such people can land in the highest ranks of a Nation.
1
AG Sessions doesn't recall meeting with Russians. But he remembers very well that he needs to prosecute Hilary Clinton. How convenient. How absurd.
2
At least Sessions recalls that the trump campaign assisted by the Russians and the American Russian facilitators as 'a brilliant campaign."
Obviously, unlike Hillary, Sessions certainly does not have the stamina to hold up to questioning barely making it to five hours. I guess lying and forgetting is very stressful and a lot of work keeping out of legal jeopardy.
I can't wait for the NYT and the Post and others to refresh Session's memory during the coming days.
In Sessions mind, Kislyak is not Russian - rather he is a very good friend!
2
Well, that chuckling little pixie could use a good tickle, or at least his memory could. It's funny; he recalls one specific detail regarding Mr. Papadopolous at the March 2016 campaign meeting on national security but fails to remember anything else.
The entire campaign was knee deep in something throughout most of 2016. Now that aromatic substance has risen up to the necks of this parade of clowns.
2
the entire administration IS the swamp. which is an insult to swaps really, cause they are an important wetland to nature...there is nothing important or natural in the Trump administration.....they all make me sick.
1
Rep Hakeem Jeffries of NJ got Sessions to admit that he has said that professing failure to recall is a frequent means of lying under oath.
Sessions alone was painful to watch, but the real torture was the questions. Have you heard the reports that Hillary eat babies, would you be considering an investigation as the whether Mueller was supply them during her administration, ain’t Alabama beautiful?
1
Jeffery Beauregard Sessions III. A card carrying member of the party of Lairs, cheaters, and thieves. What did you expect? Honesty?
Now Sessions is in the Prosecutor Mueller's crosshair's where lying matters and is punishable. No wonder he "Can't Recall". Lawyer talk is all the defense he has.
Still. The net is drawing tighter on all the Lair-inChief's people. They are all running scarred that prison time is right around the corner. And as for the Grand Old Pirates party. Their desperation is plain to see from the behavior of their members yesterday.
Resist.
1
What is going on in the halls of power in the U.S.? The Attorney General's memory regularly jogged by the testimony of others? Roy Moore on track to win a Senate seat on the strength of child molestation allegations? The President cozying up to dictators and sicking the Justice Department on a political rival as a distraction from the Russia investigation? The Trump presidency is vicious practical joke on reason and decorum. America's founding fathers would be aghast.
1
I know maybe we should "recall" Jeff Sessions from his office. Then maybe he would recall.
1
I listened to most of the hearing. My takeaways
You can interpret questions on questionnaires anyway you want. I think it went “my executive assistant......” felt it didn’t apply because I was a seating Senator.
Could not remember details of meeting with Russian but clearly remembered details of meeting the day before!
Very interesting.
2
If there was an iota of credibility to Mr. Sessions, if there was a speck of honor in this man, it is all now gone. Mr. Trump has a way to have others reveal their true character, and so has Mr. Sessions been unmasked" a liar, clear and simple, a bad unartful liar at that. A wreck to his administration and bureaucracy of course, and oh what a poor performer to his supervisor to whom he did or did he not swear fealty (?). But unabashedly a disgrace to this country, an insulting disgrace to the ideals of America, and a disgrace, full, potent --so unmitigated that it scorches-- and such a complete trampling of the law.
1
Sessions needs to be questioned again by an experienced prosecutor like Kamala Harris. "You're making me nervous", he responded to her attempts to penetrate his deceit and obfuscations. Remembering the truth is easy, it's the spiderweb of lies that's impossible to keep straight. Thanks to yet another disgraced politician he has the perfect opening to make a triumphant return to his beloved Alabama. Don't let the door hit you too hard on the way out, Jeff.
2
This is exactly why the recent report that Sessions may present himself as a write-in candidate for the GOP versus Roy Moore is such a win-win for everyone. The GOP gets to duck having to be weighed down by an egregious candidate in the form of Moore, and Sessions gets to worm his way out somewhat honorably from a post that he clearly does not posess the werewithal to manage well. What's more, Sessions can paste his prevarications on his Senate colleagues (they are used to him anyways), and also get out and away from under the stupidity of the Trump cabinet.
43
I assume that when you say “everyone,” you exclude the American people?
4
"... Mr. Trump, who has threatened Mr. Sessions’s job if he fails to prosecute Mrs. Clinton."
Something to recall at Trump's impeachment trial.
7
If this statement is true and not just an opinion, both of those sad excuses for a man should be removed from office and run out of town in shame........they have certainly brought an untold amount of shame to our country.
1
Jeff Sessions is a Trump shill and they deserve each other. From the very beginning Trump has palmed off any responsibility for his actions to someone else. Sessions does this by claiming that he does not remember shady actions claiming that he is not responsible because of his selective memory lapse. Perhaps he along with Trump should be tested for Alzeimers.
We have been listening to this junk from our President since he began campaigning his using any opposition as fall guys and stepping stones. HRC is the easiest target for obfuscation as she is a woman and from the party out of power. The GOP is as dirty as their elected candidate and jeff Sessions as they see Trump's tactics as only an extension of their own and will never take responsibility for their dirt.
6
Answering a question about motivating subordinates, Trump said "you want to be smarter than your people".
Sessions makes it clear just how low that bar is.
3
I don't recall, I don't recall! That was the excuse the Nixon gang gave in the congressional hearings during Watergate. Well, we all know how it ended. This guy should be prosecuted and jailed for repeatedly lying to congress which is a criminal act, a felony.
4
Captain Cornpone, aka Jeff Sessions, seems to have a memory stick problem. A very common problem with this administration. It is part of distraction tactic they are starting to master at the expense of the American people. Every single day they are taking us down an abyss where it will be difficult to get out off. Please Congress, could you work a little faster so we can get this over with, get down to business and normal relationships with the rest of the world?
5
If needs be, and it served his purposes and those of DT and the GOP, Sessions would not remember what he had for breakfast today!
2
With these sorts of memory issues, I'm not sure the man is capable of holding a senior government position. Heck, I'm not sure he's even capable of holding a junior government position.
BTW, I'd like the name of the FBI official who told Sessions he could omit his contacts with foreign nationals.
6
Those who call Sessions a good lawyer or a slick manipulator of the truth give him way too much credit. Those who say he's an addled old man with a bad memory give him too much compassion. He's neither. He's just a liar. And all of his pathetic sanctimony and staccato proclamations of reverence for the DOJ won't change that.
4
My mother used to call this kind of evasion "selective inattention".
2
His memory is like the 5th amendment.
3
Am I the only medical professional, who thinks that Mr Sessions responses were very similar to those seen in cases of early onset alzheimer's or multi-infarct dementia?
4
Seems to me, anyone with a memory that poor is unfit to be Attorney General. Just saying.
5
Mr. Session's performance yesterday is a first class example of how to obfuscate, delay, and derail. He alternately played a fainting southern belle, a guilty four year old denying he did it, and a foolishly outraged old man denouncing those who dared to call out his lies.
The attorney general of the United States either perjured himself or has a serious mental condition that causes extreme memory loss as well as the inability to understand simple, straight forward questions. Either way he should be removed from office for incompetence and misdeeds (perjury). He is the chief attorney for the United States and LIED under oath.
3
If we were to take Mr. Sessions' word that he truly did forget all of these contacts and discussions, then it is clear that he is incapable of directing a department as complex and important as the Justice Department. Either Sessions has age-related memory issues or he suffers with the same make-it-up-as-you-go-along lying complex as the president. Whichever it is, he is not capable of performing the duties of his position. And his good-ole-boy up on his high horse outrage at being caught out cannot be allowed to distract from his inability.
7
Compare his flabby memory with that of the quick minds of any of his staff, and you'd think he belonged at a river, fishing, or in a retirement home. He needs to be in the sunset.
2
Attorney General lies about having lied under oath. And in the highly unbelievable off chance he's telling the truth about not remembering anything, he needs to resign and see a doctor.
4
One true thread through all of this is chaos.
2
Jeffrey Beaureguard Sessions III is a villainous liar. Carter Page and George Papdopolous reported to him! In the chaos factory call the Trump campaign I could understand if someone else had slapped back Papadopolous for suggesting a face to face meeting between Putin and Trump, but it was Sessions himself! From the quote I have seen he was clearly angry that Papadopolous was bringing it up. It has also been established that he was focused on Russian contacts and nothing else. He made a pest of himself with many in the campaign with frequent calls and emails. But, Jeffy doesn't recall. He is lying. It is dangerous to leave a bold-faced liar in the position of our nation's top law enforcement officer. Mueller and his team cannot work fast enough for me.
2
Does Jeff Sessions have Alzheimer’s? His memory seems to be getting worse and worse in these hearings.
(No disrespect meant whatsoever to anyone with this very sad disease or their loved ones and caregivers.)
3
Questioner: Mr. Attorney General, for the record would you state your name.
Sessions: I don't recall.
3
This will give Trump the out he needs, perhaps, to remove Sessions as top dog at the DOJ & get rid of Meuller in one fell swoop; send Sessions shuffling back to Alabama to fill Roy Moore's seat (with the excuse that he was not honest with the senate and house - and you know that a seasoned liar like Trump would have no problem delivering that line straight-faced); then Trump can conduct a round of chummy, private interviews in the Oval, to see who he can replace Sessions with. Of course, the only qualification that will count will be unquestioning loyalty to Trump with the immediate objective being to fire Meuller.
1
This whole "Well, I never..." Southern gentleman act is disingenuous at best. I can only imagine if someone in a Clinton administration pulled the same stunt. State run tv (aka FOX News) would throw a complete fit and twitter would explode...
1
Don't we deserve an AG with an adequate memory!
1
The transcript of Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing shows that Sen. Al Franken never asked Sessions if he met with any Russians during the campaign. Franken asked: “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?" Sessions never answered the question. Instead, he responded to a statement Franken made the notorious Russian Dossier.
Franken said: "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.”
Sessions responded: "I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it." He meant that he had no communication with Russian operatives purported to have compromising information about Trump.
We now know that a surrogate for the Clinton campaign—Christopher Steele—funneled money to Russian operatives to produce the Russian Dossier.
William Case, you are behind the times on digesting the news.
The question re: exchange of information between the Trump campaign and Russia gov't IS what Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to. ... Sessions CHAIRED a campaign strategy meeting at which "Papa" discussed a trip to Russia.
You don't believe me? See Papadopoulos' signed confession.
So: Sessions did know. He was "aware of activities". In other words: he lied.
1
Times story idea:
Interview the police officer prosecuted for perjury by Sessions...would love to hear his/her thoughts on Sessions' testimony.
1
I'm confused! After listening yesterday to AG Sessions' testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, I don't know who makes a better Jeff Sessions -- Jeff Sessions or Kate McKinnon on SNL.
At any rate, we need to get the AG some Prevagen!
1
Maybe he should be tested for reduced mental functionality?
No evidence has ever emerged to contradict Sessions’ previous testimony. Sessions has never testified he did not meet or have communications with Russians during the 2016 campaign. He testified he never met with Russians to discuss the 2016 campaign.
During Sessions’ confirmation hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Sessions: “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisors 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: “No.”
No evidence has ever emerged to contradict this testimony. Sessions says his meeting with the Russian ambassador—which was attended by staff—was about U.S. response to the Ukrainian crisis. Sessions had met with the Ukrainian ambassador the previous day.
I found it sickening to watch Sessions run down the clock on Congressional hard-line questions. Few called him on his frustratingly effective tactic (save: Congressman Cicilline). Session's inability to recall even basic information about his past behavior calls into question his fitness to serve as US Attorney General. Is he suffering from dementia?
1
To hear this guy is scary. Are we still a democracy?
Our Attorney General is most likely committing perjury with all these "I don't remember". What is more freaky is the eagerness of the republicans, and of Sessions himself on Monday, to go after political opponents and threaten to jail them. That is what countries like North Korea, Myanmar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and many other "fine' dictatorial governments do.
1
Memory loss or flat out lying. Well, the AG’s selectively very poor memory seems to get better when his previous sworn comments before Congress about Russian contacts with the campaign are proven false by an inopportune photograph. Personally, I prefer the flat out lying approach because it seems that almost everyone associated with the 2016 Tweeter campaign that had clearly proven contacts with the Russians suffers from the same serious memory loss disease. A very contagious disease among the Tweeter campaign folks. The treatment is a strong prosecution on perjury charges and then the memory lapses may suddenly fade away. How surprising. Liar, liar pants on fire.
1
The chief law-enforcement officer of the nation doesn't not understand the concept of "under oath."
Really? I am gobsmacked ... but, then again, I've been watching this sorry, dishonest show for the last year plus.
When Jeff Sessions is Mitch's go-to integrity write-in replacement for a disgraced and disgraceful senatorial candidate, this nation is in more trouble than we even thought.
1
Here's a different question: why should anybody with such a poor memory be serving as A.G.? He's incompetent and should be fired.
1
Poor Jeff Sessions. The only thing left for him to say is "On advice of counsel I fail to recollect".
If he has really forgotten that much stuff, perhaps he is not intelligent enough to be our Attorney General.
A funny thing happened on his way from the Senate. Sessions lost his memory. Meeting in his office with the Russian ambassador? No recollection whatsoever. Meeting with his own council with Russia on the agenda. No recall. Same thing when filling out forms, or promising to recuse himself from matters about Hillary Clinton or Russia.
But how dare anyone besmirch his honor! How could anyone possibly imagine he would ever lie! He guesses that any congressman suggesting otherwise can't be sued?
There have been times when the SNL version of Sarah Palin became as convincing to me as the real one. Sean Spicer became his own caricature also. That's happening for me now with Sessions. The problem is that the real Sessions is the attorney general of the United States. I am used to thinking that attorney generals have dignity, integrity and a deep understanding of the justice system. But the president has become a grotesque caricature as well.
Pinocchio noses, marionette strings, Russian nesting dolls, and winding a key to get the same phrases. "I have no recall." "I don't remember." "I forgot until I was reminded." "No recollection of these emails/phone calls/meetings/contacts". Oops.
129
Now that Sessions and everyone else is in agreement that his memory has been lost, I DO hope that NOBODY attempts to locate it.........
2
Remember this: Republicans are facilitating the Russians - letting them get away with intruding in our elections for Republican benefit and will continue to help them in the future.
Indeed, Sessions remembers trump's campaign of deceit, deception and division as "a brilliant campaign." It is a campaign that continues to this day.
Mr. Jordan, a Republican, seems to want to facilitate terrorists in America too that are in communications with terrorists overseas. Mr. Jordan's attitude seems to be "how dare we unmask American terrorists or U.S. traitors conspiring with the Russians!" - while doing nothing against home grown terrorists with guns that commit mass murder and blow up Federal buildings with children in them.
2
Mr Sessions can forget whatever he chooses to. Congress and the USA have become an institutional fake. USA is following "Democracy, the Russian way" with a President who is an autocratic leader hiding his own corruption as well as those of his cronies, and a subservient Republican majority in Congress. So much for the "Beacon of Democracy" and the "Land of the Free"!
2
Vito Corleone would have been proud of Jeff Sessions. All you have to do is correct all the previous lies you told during previous Congressional hearings and claim "I don't recall" and "to the best of my knowledge" on current questions from Congress. It's a cinch! Accordingly to this plan, any legal deposition or hearing in Congress is moot before it even begins.
Someone with that poor a memory does not have the mental capability of being Attorney General.
1
He shows remarkable memory on how he pushed back against attempts to contacting Russia. Doctors should study his amazing case of selective memory.
No matter the topic, how is it possible someone with this short of memory serves as the Attorney General?
Surely more "recollection" is required of the position. Right?
1
So sad to see such a week and primitive man as our Attorney General. As a lawyer who practices in federal court, I️ can tell you that I️ would have been subjected to discipline by the Florida Bar if I️ had conducted myself as Sessions has since becoming AG.
He is a pathological liar, just like the President.
Believing in the honor of the federal judiciary becomes harder and harder when watching the likes of AG Sessions. After practicing law for 35 years, I️ am so disheartened to see a person as unfit as Sessions holding such an important post.
It just may be that Judge Roy Moore can fill the boots of Jeff Sessions in the Senate. Sessions proved yesterday that it won't take a whole lot of intellect or honesty to stand in them.
So his defense boils down to being too stupid to clear the already low bar set by the inept and chaotic Trump campaign? One would think somebody with even and iota of self-awareness might avoid this angle.
How in heaven's name does a 70-year-old person with such a pathologically horrendous memory get confirmed by the United States Senate to be the nation's chief law enforcement officer?
The bar seemed to be set as low as it could possibly go for John Mitchell, but Jeff Sessions proves once again that every record is meant to be broken.
2
Jeff Sessions has lied, misdirected, and obfuscated several times in his sworn testimony to various congressional committees. A less powerful person that had done that would have been charged with perjury. Why does a double standard apply to the nation's top law enforcement official?
1
If this absurd hearing doesn't get the stay at homes in the 2016 election to get out at every voting opportunity this country is no longer worth saving.
2
Re/ Mr. Sessions: I never knew that SELECTIVE AMNESIA could be a defense for perjury. Sessions is , in his own way, just as much of an embarrassment to the status of the Attorney General's office as President Trump is to our country. Sessions looks and sounds like a ventriloquist's dummy ( with his squeaky voice) sitting on someone's lap-- perhaps Trump's, who is pulling the invisible strings.
2
He's not forgetting anything. He too was, and is, colluding with the Russians. Ryan and McConnell, also, are probably up to their ears in foreign cash. Rewarding your rich supporters is Putin's playbook. Why shouldn't it be that of the party that finds it helpful to solicit Russian help to win an American election? It is disingenuous not to acknowledge the bribery that has gotten us here. For years, Wall Street, the big drug companies, the oil producers, the chemical manufacturers, and many other industries, have been paying them (and certain "third way" "blue dog" Dems) campaign cash to insure that profits are protected. All at the expense of American citizens who might prefer clean air, clean water, healthy food and banks that don't conspire to cheat.
Many thanks to The New York Times for streaming the entire November 14 Sessions session. Being able to watch how the day unfolded was very revealing.
It was also revealing to be able to eavesdrop on the photographers' conversations during the official breaks.
1
I think anyone with such poor recall ability should be headed to a nursing home or psych facility or at least to some MRIs and CAT scans, not in current service in the DOJ. Sessions has decided what side he is on and it is not the side of the American people nor Justice. Sorry, I have dealt with hedgers and liars and he not only is both of those, he is an enabler to tRump et al in the highest form. That alone may be his only claim to real fame.
2
So no one in the Trump administration takes notes during meetings? I didn't hear all 5 hours of this travesty, but did anybody ask the question? I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is no. Who wants to create a record of their astonishing and treasonous activities? Also, I suspect most of them can't read or write.
3
If Mr. Sessions memory is failing, one has to question if he is fit to be the Attorney General.
1
The GOP needs deflection, and what better deflection than persecuting Clinton? They persecuted Obama with rumors that his whole Presidency was not legitimate because he was not an American. They persecuted Clinton endlessly chasing headlines with innuendo about her emails and Benghazi. (And have let similar episodes slide with Trump.)
At what point are we going to stop buying the argument that it is OK if both sides do it? Trump groping women is not OK, even if Bill Clinton was a bonafide horn dog. And if by off-chance, the GOP is on to something, and Clinton was guilty of some action with Russians and uranium, (unlikely only because the GOP unveiled it when it was expedient) it doesn't make it OK for us to stop looking at the People. Who. Are. Actually. In. Power.
The corruption that counts the most is the corruption that has overturned regulations and changed law to benefit the people making the laws.
I know the public has the attention span of a two year old, and the tenacity to loathe Clinton that would put a pit bull with jaws locked on a victim to shame, but it is time to grow up and move on. Clinton is not a player, Trump is.
3
How can the entire Trump administration especially Jeff Sessions, not be a farce? Trump is a farce and he hired them all.
5
Kate McKinnon was right, "Sessions was the creepiest guy in the room". Listening to the entire hearing, I came away thinking his colleagues were pretty creepy too.
4
With such a poor memory, how does Sessions know he did not commit conspiracy against the United States?
Regardless, he is clearly unfit for any kind of public office. Beyond shameful.
2
Sessions' bouts with instant amnesia come at convenient times. But within the Trump administration, this is an asset along with being immune from the truth; having a skewed view of reality and the chronic inability to control a lying tongue.
2
The editorial board expects Jeff Sessions to remember meeting with every low level campaign volunteer and what he/she said or did. But doesn't hold everyone to the same standard. Hilary Clinton in her interview with the FBI cited over 3 dozen things she couldn't recall. Bottom line Trump's campaign was a dumpster fire nobody knew what anyone was doing because nobody thought they would win. And from what we know of Trump it's only him that matters so it's highly unlikely there would be any real collusion or that it mattered in the election. Trump got lucky ran against the only person in the world he could beat. We have Clinton to blame for Trump being president. Look for yourself (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/02/the-many-thing... Like or hate Jeff Sessions he is probably telling the truth which is unfortunate because I think we all want it to be true.
Republicans are today's confederates. There are few political issues upon which they will not lie, will not deceive, will not obfuscate in order to exert their doctrinal power over the people of our country. Sessions is just another example of their duplicity.
2
The fact that Jeff Sessions has lied, and continues to lie, under oath is outrageous. He is supposed to be the chief law enforcement official of the United States, and Congress is letting him get away with overt PERJURY!
When President Clinton was caught lying under oath about an extra-marital affair, he was duly impeached by the House. But Sessions? It seems that the old Republican double-standard of hypocrisy prevails. As a matter of LAW and ethics, not only should Jeff Sessions lose his position as Attorney General, he should be behind bars.
2
I watched the hearing yesterday, and one question kept entering my mind: Is Sessions brain-damaged, or is he merely pretending to be brain-damaged to avoid admitting the truth?
It reminded me of when George W. Bush was president. Back then, the big question was: Is he lying, or is he genuinely so clueless that he believes there are weapons of mass destruction stockpiled in Iraq?
It's a sad state of affairs when this is how we think about our nation's leaders. And it's largely a GOP phenomenon. Democrats who make it to the presidency and the cabinet tend to be mature, rational adults. Republicans are incompetent and mentally deficient. Trump is the apotheosis.
3
Here is what I've gotten, listening to Sessions' testimony and his public pronouncements: He's either lying or telling the truth. Which means he's either too corrupt or too stupid to do his job well. Fits right in with all the rest of the Trumpists and the Rs.
4
I cannot recollect one situation in the past, nor will there be one in the future, where I can get away with this legalese-drivel. And this is a public servant! What a shame and what a tragedy.
We are beyond hopeless
1
This is not simply a distraction, it is a hostage taking. The logic is that the campaign is over and it’s unfair to now discover Russian subterfuge. Turning to prosecute Hillary is a tit for tat exercise. No prosecutor will find anything in the Uranium deal but that’s just a pretext, a fishing license for the republicans. In contrast Robert Mueller is finding stuff, incriminating stuff, right up to Don Jr.
2
Many commenters here are zestily and cleverly having their way with Mr. Sessions, as they should! I'm not sure what to add, except to say that there is something so deeply immoral and illusory about this whole matter that it seems like a dark national trance. Language and sense are almost completely collapsing, plain law and well-established custom are whittled down to a nub, and truth and accountability to what is true is...under assault. When the chief law enforcement officer of the United States practically admits to perjury and obstruction, in public before a House committee, while strenuously asserting his unimpeachable (!) honor and love for the institution of the Department of (cough...cough) Justice, then "...mere anarchy is loosed..." It is time now for a groundswell of both public howling and public opposition--the only kind that can make America, in any reclaimable sense of the word, great.
1
The movie version of today's hearing: Zero Recall.
3
This is our attorney General? Boy, have we hit rock bottom with this choice, I don't know who we are anymore.
2
Back when young people read books instead of twiddling their thumbs over an electronic screen, they had expansive vocabularies. Especially those kids who wanted to go to law school. And one of those almost forgotten words is "disremember." One used to read it in court transcripts from Alabama and other Southern states. Surprising that Sessions hasn't said "I disremember" yet, but perhaps this might remind him to.
3
Twenty-five years from now, when 100 Americans are asked, "Do you remember anyone in American politics named Jeff Sessions?" all 100 will respond, "I don't recall." Now, baby, that's what I call justice - Jeff Sessions-style justice.
4
All that needs to be said is” lock him up”. Otherwise democracy is at dire risk.
2
Sessions didn't lie, he simply told his best version of the truth.
Sessions couldn't remember the meeting at which Papadopoulos was present until Sessions read about it in the press. But he is quick and eager to state that he virtuously shot down Popadopoulos's proposal. Could there be any more blatant lie? Let's all pray that the Democrats gain control of Congress in less than a year. Then we'll see Sessions and many others pursued for perjury, contempt of Congress, and other more serious crimes. Orange will be the new blue.
3
Come on guys, the poor Session is getting old and I know how it is. I am getting there too. May be his "forgetting" is the first sign of the alhzeimer disease or just simply a diplomatic sickness.
Trump would sell his own children if he had to when it comes to "clearing" himself of wrong-doing concerning Russia's intrusion during, and after, last year's election. So that means Mr. Sessions is beyond vulnerable. His foundation in this administration is quick-sand. But he is a weak-spined man who will do whatever his boss tells him to do. For what purpose, his own power and hid own bigoted agenda? Perhaps, just perhaps, he will grow a conscience and actually remind Trump how he is not above the law. But that hope is a long shot.
However, whatever transpires from this yet-again Clinton probe, it is moot as far as what really matters. Most thinking people realize that it is not only one more attempt to distract us from the growing evidence of the Trump campaign's "cooperation" - shall we say - with Putin and company but also there is the mere fact that Hillary C. is not president of these United States. Her alleged actions have no bearing on the players involved. In other words, she is not accountable or responsible, not any more, not in any way, with the disaster of a Trump victory and his utterly pathetic choices for his Cabinet, starting with Sessions and on down, with Mattis as the only exception.
3
Lies and more lies seems to have become the mantra of the Republican party. From Nixon's "I am not a crook", Reagan's "I don't recall", Bush Senior's "There was no Quid Pro Quo" Bush Jr.'s "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and now Trump whose each and every day begins with a lie and ends with another lie.
Yes Bill Clinton lied when he said he did not have sexual relations with "that woman" but his transgressions did not involve the security of our country, our relations with other countries, nor his personal finances.
3
Lest we forget:
Ronald Reagan, a professional actor used to memorizing speeches & scripts, used "I do not recall" 124 times during the Iran Contra hearings.
Poindexter's exceptionally smart nuclear physicist mind failed him 184 times, & Ollie North, well his stupendous amnesia has been a punchline for 30 years.
Everything went just fine for them in the end.
But if Sessions ever has any doubts about what he may or may not have mislead, perjured or falsely denied, he can always do the classic Eliot Abrams:
"I never said I had no idea about most of the things you said I said I had no idea about" Especially when pardons for lying to congress are handed out like candy by Republicans.
2
Three times he has testified before Congress, at his confirmation hearing and twice since. And he has told three separate and conflicting stories. Now, he doesn't remember.
This is exactly, precisely, how 5 years old children lie.
Sessions is a liar,,, and now should be prosecuted for lying to Congress,,, and me.
4
Sessions "memory" is so selective as to be laughable.
He fails to tell the truth, the whole truth, and only when called on it does he testify that the report - from the main stream media - jogged the fog and he then "recalls" and recounts only those details that support him and his President.
I take it back. It is not laughable, it is frustrating, and embarrassing and dangerous.
The highest law enforcement officer in our country has not even a passing relationship to truth, or to transparency in government. He is aiding and abetting an immoral if not downright criminal administration.
At only 70 years old, he is intentionally playing the doddering old fool, confused by the "chaos" of the Trump campaign, unable to retain facts amid a tumultuous environment. And he thinks these are great credentials for a man in the office he has been entrusted with? A man charged with leading the entire Attorney General's Office?
As A.G. he is the chief lawyer for the government, and heads the Department of Justice. As head of the DOJ he oversees the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshalls Service, U.S. Attorneys, Interpol Washington, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Divisions of Civil Rights, Antitrust, National Security - and many more.
Surely there is "chaos" swirling around him daily. Can a man with such a weak memory, and so easily confused, be trusted to handle all this?
Even If he's not just blatantly lying to Congress, he just testified to his own disqualifications for his job.
203
Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Absolutely (if I’m permitted to replace the question with one of my own choosing, and to not tell anyone until after I’m found out).
14
This is what one of my old math professors, Jacob Wolfowitz, used to call "remembering with advantages."
9
If Sesssion is lying to Congress, that is a felony and the biggest scandal of the Trump administration to date. Whether he remembers or not is basically unknowable, but context clues are huge. If he met the ambassador during his only visits to the Russian embassy, he would surely have remembered. If he met with his underlings in a secret meeting that had to be specially arranged, he surely would have remembered that. If all the meetings were routine, held in his office and lasted a total of 5 minutes, his claim is more believable. Without context, I don’t have what I need to decide.
The Board basically says he must have remembered without evidence of context. The integrity of the AG is a huge matter. “He must have known”, without context, doesn’t convince me and strikes me as cavalier treatment of a matter of great significance.
40
Context is everything. And there is context. The meetings Sessions claims not to recall did, in fact, happen, and they did not happen as part of a routine day full of meetings. For example, going to the Russian embassy and meeting with the ambassador is not one of a parade of meetings taken daily between the hours of 2 and 4; it is Sessions going out of his way. And that is important to remember with all of his denials. In virtually every instance, he went out of his way to meet with - and not remember meeting with - an individual or group of individuals.
Were his protestations about not being able to recall one of the 10-20 meetings he has daily, that would be one thing. But they’re not.
2
Mr. Sessions has a photographic memory - he can't remember anything until he's shown a photograph...
One wonders how he finds his way to the office each day.
14
It is not very uncommon for politicians to suffer from convenient amnesia now and then. But Sessions' amnesia has to be a cut above all else. Sessions is no more the willy nilly politician. He is the custodian of the country's law and order. Upholding justice is his prime task. In Sessions' case, it appears he is seeking every which way to seek amnesia to cover his on treasonous crime.
7
If Mr. Sessions memory is that bad he should resign.
11
Wow, and he's the top legal voice in America? My four-year old granddaughter remembers something that she heard me say from when she was not quite 3, and wasn't said directly to her! Does he remember that if you say something under oath (even, I don't recall) that isn't true that it is a criminal offense called perjury? I hope it comes back to bite him in a really big way. He chose the wrong side of history in order to appease his emperor.
12
I would tell Trump et al that if for political reasons they install a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton that the next Democratic President will ask for installing a special counsel to investigate Trump, Kushner, Ivanka and the likes.
12
Too bad he couldn't be connected to a real time polygraph and be subject to perjury charges for every "I don't recall" lie.
9
Whenever I see Jeff Sessions "testify" before Congress, I'm reminded of the movie "Clear and Present Danger". At one point, Robert Ritter advises Harrison Ford's Jack Ryan that to survive in Washington, he has to remember the phrases "I do not recall" and "I have no recollection of that, Senator". Near the end of the film, the President, played by Donald Moffat, refers to such sleight-of-hand as the "Old Potomac Two-Step". On the hand, I am able to recall obscure lines from a relatively obscure decades-old movie, but the highest-ranking law enforcement official in the land is unable to remember any of his numerous dealings with Russians.
9
Republican strategists Steve Schmidt (McCain) and Nicolle Wallace (Bush 43)
said some weeks ago that during the campaigns they worked on, they never met even one Russian. Adding, if they had, there's no way on earth they would've forgotten it. However, as Schmidt later noted, every Trump campaign operative who met with a Russian has lied about it. Every single one of them. You gotta wonder why, considering they all claim, once they've been outed, those meetings were perfectly innocent.
20
I just hope that Sessions is seeing someone about
his memory loss. It is getting real bad. Is he losing
his keys, does he drive endless hours to nowhere,
do the DC police need to bring him home most nights?
9
Wasn't Bill Clinton's impeachment on grounds of perjury and obstruction of justice? Sessions seems to be guilty of perjury and perhaps obstruction. So the House would have grounds to impeach him. Hasn't anyone bothered to remind him of that?
Did anyone ask where his notes are? If he didn't have notes or a schedule he, as others have pointed out, is unfit to be an attorney or in office.
Of course he could quit and try to go back to his old job.
9
Was that Jeff Sessions? It was very hard not to see Kate McKinnon.
8
Other than a small minority of Americans, nobody cares about good-government, the personal conduct of its elected officials or the inherent unfairness of so much that goes on. Instead they care about their parochial concerns and the way in which we present our military might to the world. This is becoming our undoing as we continue to slide along toward 2nd-tier status. Within fifty years we will be overwhelmed by the juggernaut that is China and its acolytes.
4
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, according to a truly scary report by Rachel Maddow last night, Tillerson has hired a firm with former KGB ties, in a no-bid contract, to handle security at the American embassy in Moscow. Watch what they do, not what they say. Sessions was just a front yesterday to distract from what is really going on, STILL, with Russia. I suspect Russia has not only Trump by the throat, but several others as well. Tick tock, Mr Mueller, tick tock.
13
Presumably, Mr. Sessions is entitled to some vacation this year. It might not be a bad idea to let Kate McKinnon fill in, so at least there would be something to laugh about when it's time to testify on Capitol Hill. Because if this amnesia act keeps up without any break, none of us will have any hair left to tear out.
6
Perhaps there are other individuals who can clearly recall to Mr. Mueller on Sessions' behalf. Here's hoping.
7
Whether or not Sessions tells the truth, what difference does it make? His buddies on the committee, and in the Senate at large, will do nothing about it.
4
I'm starting not to recognize the country I grew up in. That's sad.
9
The first time I recall an officer of the law use the "I don't remember," excuse and having it pay off was during the Supreme Court hearing of Chief Justice Renquist. There were a number of questionable documents to which he'd put his signature. One was a lease to his home with the clause that no future buyers could be Jews. Or was it African Americans. For a guy with a supposed photographic memory and who was one of the most astute lawyers in the country, the large number of times he pleaded that he didn't recall or remember something he signed was appalling. In my view it set the mark lower than ever before and its stuck. Nowadays, "I don't remember," is used so often it's like a normal ploy. Sessions obviously was around the Renquist's hearing and learned from the best.
5
Sessions is just one of the Trump team suffering from that strange malady "Russian Amnesia." And Republicans calling for a special counsel to investigate anything but Russia are beginning to sound as if they're all part of the larger conspiracy. Maybe it's time to investigate Grassley, Nunes, Jordan et al for colluding with a foreign power.
9
And don't forget Pence, who immediately issues a denial of wrongdoing each time the Russian collusion comes up. Methinks thou dost protest too much.
1