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Claire McCaskill Twitter Reveals Her Own Russian Ambassador Meetings

By Zachary Volkert
Published on: 08:46 PST, Mar 2, 2017

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri has been one of the most outspoken members of her party on Twitter and elsewhere when it comes to Donald Trump’s presidency, a trend which continued when it was revealed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Like many other key Democrats and even some Republicans, Senator McCaskill found Sessions’ meeting with Kislyak especially irksome because he appeared to deny any such relationship during a Senate hearing before his confirmation for Trump’s cabinet. During that hearing, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota asked Sessions what his feelings were on the allegations that the Trump campaign that colluded with the Russian government.

“I have been called a surrogate a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”

Going against the criticism of McCaskill and other detractors, defenders of Sessions have claimed that this statement was in response to the specific allegation that the Trump campaign itself had organized with the Russian government. Sessions was, however, one of the earliest supporters of Trump’s campaign; in fact, he was the first senator to back his candidacy. As far back as this time last year, Trump promised that Sessions would be a key member of his government. Still, the former Alabama senator himself has officially denied that these meetings have anything to do with U.S. presidential campaigning.

“I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”

Claire, who served alongside Jeff Sessions on the Armed Services Committee, joined in the chorus of Democrats who called his statements deceptive. McCaskill used the example of her own experience on the committee to argue that there was no logical reason for the Attorney General to have met with the Russian ambassador.

But critics are claiming that Claire’s Twitter history doesn’t back up on her own argument. According to McCaskill’s own tweets, she has spoken with the Russian ambassador at least twice since 2013, once relating to the Iran nuclear deal and once relating to a hold on adoptions of Russian children by American adoptive parents.

Claire McCaskill Twitter Russian ambassador
After calling Jeff Sessions into question, Claire McCaskill had her own honor put on trial via Twitter for meetings with the Russian ambassador. [Image by Win McNamee/Getty Images]

Yet McCaskill says that these tweets refer to something else entirely. McCaskill condemned Sessions for not only meeting with a Russian ambassador, but for later neglecting to reveal this information when he was questioned about it during his hearing. Furthermore, she says that these meetings were public, and she did not solicit them herself, nor were they solicited of her by members of the Russian government.

Neither Claire or Session are the only members of U.S. Congress to have met with an ambassador, privately or otherwise. Most recently, John McCain held a meeting with the Baltic members of NATO to discuss their fears over possible Russian aggression in the region. After all, ambassadors are in Washington to meet with relevant members of the U.S. government in the first place. McCaskill would have been hard-pressed to find someone more appropriate to discuss U.S.-Russian adoption policies with than the Russian ambassador himself.

Claire McCaskill Twitter Russian ambassador
Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill was outraged on Twitter that Jeff Sessions met with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 presidential campaign, but it seems as if he wasn’t the only person to meet with the representative. [Image by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]

Despite her controversial statement, Claire McCaskill is far from the only member of the U.S. government disturbed by the undisclosed meeting between the Russian ambassador and Jeff Sessions. Though the attorney general has continued to defend himself by saying that nothing related to the campaign was discussed in the meeting, even Republicans are coming out to say that he needs to step down from any investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government — among them Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and House Oversight Chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah.

These statements are relatively light compared to those from McCaskill’s Democratic colleagues. McCaskill was one of several members of her party that demanded that Sessions step down his position entirely. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said that he had broken the law by lying under oath. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer compared the idea of him being allowed to investigate his own links to the Russian ambassador like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

Do you think the Claire McCaskill Twitter posts about her own Russian ambassador meetings weaken her argument to remove Jeff Sessions?

[Featured Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

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