13/06/2017 100 Days+

that. Also his contacts with Russian officials. Earlier today, I spoke to

a Democratic congressmen, a member of the house intelligence committee,

I asked him what he hopes to hear from Mr Sessions.

What do you want to hear from Jeff Sessions when he testifies in the

Senate? I think we're going to have a chance

to hear from Jeff Sessions. Most importantly about whether or not the

reserve third meeting with the Russian ambassador in Washington,

that is going to be very important. Also, get an update about his

working relationship with the White House. There had been some

discussion about the possibility that he offered his resignation,

which is very troubling. We don't understand why that would be,

whether it was just friction between he and the president, or some more

substantive issue that committee should know about. So there should

be very important issues today. You sit on the house intelligence

committee, and you have just been given extra funding for the Russian

investigation. What I do looking at? You're looking at the idea of

whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians,

or obstruction of justice, or are you looking at the possibility of

perjury? Certainly, the special Council is

the one we will be most concerned with any crimes that were committed,

obstruction of justice, perjury. For the intelligence committee, we want

to make sure of two things. Number one, that we take all measures to

prevent any kind of foreign interference with American elections

in the future, whether it is 2018 or the next essential election. And we

have to do that to dissuade not only the Russians but any other foreign

government or non-state actor who has the cyber capabilities to mess

with America's elections will stop we need to dissuade them from doing

that. Every American is owed the answer to this question, whether

part of what happened was an inside job, whether any American or

Americans, spires are coordinated or colluded with the Russians who

interfered with our 2016 elections. The committee will try to get to the

bottom of that. I am sure you have heard this from

Republican voters in your district, there is some sense that the

Democrats are out to make the Trump residency fail whatever it takes.

Listening to what you want to hear from Jeff Sessions, he had another

meeting, maybe with a Russian ambassador at the Mayflower hotel.

It doesn't sounds terribly nefarious. You can understand why

there are Trump supporters who are very critical of Democrats of the

moment, who think they are pushing this all Russian investigation too

far. I have heard that sentiment out

there, and I think the president has a core group of supporters, about

35% of the country, that have stuck by him through thick and thin and

will continue to do so. But these are very legitimate questions. They

need to be answered, regarding the Russian investigation, and whether

any Trump associates, spires with the Russians to fiddle with our

elections. Do you think Jeff Sessions colluded

with the Russians? The question is whether Jeff

Sessions was fully cooperative and honest with the Senate during the

confirmation process, and that is why the issue of this meeting with

the Russian ambassador is going to be discussed. Letters now get the

reaction from a Republican. You have been a long supporter of President

Trump, but the problem for him at the moment is this Russian

investigation, the Jeff Sessions healing, this is not a for the

administration, and they are not making it better for themselves, are

they? Set part of the reason why the James Comey testimony was so

significant, I just want to go back to Congressmen Joaquin Castro, the

question that should have been asked, the biggest thing that the

Democrats had going for them, this theory, this operating notion that

the presidents colluded with the Russians was completely shattered.

It was disproven under oath by the FBI director. Of course the clouds

of these investigations will hang over the administration, but as long

as people like Jeff Sessions testify under oath, but the problem that the

Democrats face is that the narrative of obstruction of justice have been

shattered. But the other side of this investigation is whether there

was obstruction of justice, and it will be the special investigator who

will ultimately take the decision whether that did indeed take place.

Confusing the whole picture now is the idea from President Trump, or

the suggestion that President Trump is considering firing the special

investigator. I do not think this is true. This rumour came from a man

who did not meet with the president, and simply said that he heard the

president might be considering firing Robert Miller. This was not

really confirmed by President Trump's attorney, who said he would

not comment on whether or not the president would do that. This is

spinning the wheels over nothing, and Sean Spicer made it very clear

that Chris Roddy, the originator of this, had nothing to do with the

White House. -- DUP. You should know that Chris Ruddy is not someone who

has just made that up, he has been on this programme before. He did not

meet with the president in the White House, and we heard this morning

that the president was not considering it, and he would not

consent to the firing of Robert Mueller. We just want to show our

audience, here are the scenes from the Senate. This is where Jeff

Sessions is going to come in. He is not there yet, the Senators will

troop into those chairs as soon as the hearing begins. I want to ask

about the firing of the FBI director, James,, because there is

something else that the senators will be asking Jeff Sessions about.

Particularly this idea that Jeff Sessions was asked by the president

to leave the room on February 14 in the Oval Office, when James, you

said President Trump asks him to let the Flynn investigation go. Would it

not have been better for the Attorney General to be in on those

meetings with the director of the FBI? Not necessarily, because the

Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, had recused himself from the

investigation into Russian collusion, so in that scenario, it

would not be. But even James, eight, although he did not cite this and

has written testimony, said that the president hoped the investigation

would end, not that he directed him, and he did say that he did not feel

directed by the White House. Jill, he has come to be grilled about how

many meetings he had with the Russian ambassador. -- Joe. He has

disclosed some of the meetings that he had had with the ambassador, in

his capacity as a campaign official. What he has not disclosed as the

meetings he had as a senator, and what I think James, was referring to

in his testimony last week, a third meeting that took place at a cell,

and that is something I think we need to hear today. It was a

reception at the Mayflower hotel attended by many other diplomats,

many other members of Congress and members of the Senate. What do the

viewers out there think that the UK ambassador is doing right now in

Washington, DC? His meeting members of Congress in both houses. This is

something that happens in the order of business for the US

representatives. I do not think there were any secret microchips

past, no secret notes passed, this is not what we are talking about.

That really does not call to mind the kind of secret meetings that I

think the media is trying to portray. There, Joe, thank you.

Thank you for joining us,. It is interesting, we've just heard from a

Republican and from a Democrat, and the audience will have to make up

their mind. And the prosecutors will have to get more of the details. But

there is such a sub opinion on this one here in the United States, with

Democrats thinking that something is going on, there was collusion or

obstruction of justice, there was perjury, and Republicans equally

convinced that the Democrats are just tried to make political hay out

of this. Does it mean that every argument in Washington, every point

put forward at the moment, is fiercely partisan? Yes, which is why

Robert Mueller is so critical of this. He will sort through all of

the evidence and come up with something more concrete, the special

crosses -- prosecutor. What is so important about these sessions?

Because of the questions that we discuss. Jeff Sessions has been

close to Donald Trump throughout the campaign, taking a key spot in the

Trump Administration as Attorney General. He oversees enforcement of

laws, and including the FBI. It is up to Jeff Sessions how forthcoming

he wants to be, he could claim that some of the stuff is covered by

executive privilege and he will not reveal details of conversations with

the president. But what I will really be looking for is during his

testimony last week, James Comey said that he was in the Oval Office

on February 14 with the president, and the president told everyone in

the room to leave and James Comey to stay there. And one of the people

who hung around in that room in the Chile was Jeff Sessions, and

according to James Comey, the president told Jeff Sessions he had

to go. He shrugged and left the, and NetMeeting when it was just James

Comey and President Trump, that is when he said that President Trump

told him to back off the investigation into Michael Flynn,

the formal national security adviser. I want to here what Jeff

Sessions said happened before and after that meeting, and if he

corroborates James, a's account, that will give a little indication

that maybe Donald Trump knew what he was doing was not such a good idea.

But a loss of this will come down to interpretation. You can see a

scenario where he would say, he came up to me and said don't leave me

alone with the president again. And James Comey said there was this

pause, and James Comey looked at him blankly. He might not think that he

reacted that way that there was a problem, and it comes down to he he

said. Absolutely, nobody knows what happened in that room between James

Comey and Donald Trump, and it will be interesting to see what Jeff

Sessions says today, but what he does not say will also be

interesting. The Justice Department said that they did provide a memo to

James Comey about how to interact with the president, the separation

of the FBI and the White House. But we may not know exactly, Jeff

Sessions may put this in a more friendly narrative for the president

today. I have one theory about this, which is that the President, you

will remember, has said that James Comey is a liar, effectively. If

during the course of these hearings, we hear Jeff Sessions corroborate

what James Comey has said, that would tend to give more credence and

credibility to the fired FBI director, and I wonder if you think

that the default is true and then puts Mr Trump in a slightly tricky

position. He would have to say that James Comey was lying about these

encounters when we hear Jeff Sessions saying that what he

reported was true. We have to remember that Jeff Sessions will be

under oath, so if he corroborates what James Comey has said, even the

details of the meeting of the circumstances... Here is Jeff

Sessions. I am just going to interrupt you because he has just

walked into the room, the man of the moment. Jeff Sessions, a long-time

associate of President Trump, formerly a US senator, and he got

close to President Trump during the campaign. I remember talking to Jeff

Sessions at one of the debates as he was trying to guide the presidential

campaign. Here is Richard Burr, the senior Republican on the Senate

intelligence committee. And here is Mark Warner, the Democrat with him.

Donald Trump will be watching this quite closely because there has been

speculation over the last few days that he is not particularly pleased

with what Jeff Sessions has said. Anyway, Jeff Sessions is under a lot

of pressure because he will know that the boss is tuning in. And if

he is nervous about his job prospects, he will try to sue the

right things during the course of this hearing. But as Anthony said,

he is under oath, and after the James Comey hearing I asked both

Republican and Democratic senators on Friday if they believed James,

you're the president, they said that only one person was under oath,

James Comey, and when you are under oath, you tend to tell the truth.

The president will be expecting Jeff Sessions to stand up for him, I

imagine, and to stand up for his version of events, and perhaps to

make it clear that he does not believe James Comey's version of

events. That is certainly what the president would like to hear. The

senators are getting ready, there is Richard Burr, the chairman of the

committee. We know that they are not particularly short winded. Let's

listen. Attorney General Sessions, we

appreciate your willingness to appear before the committee today.

We thank you for your years of dedicated service as a member of

this