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Sen. Chuck Schumer today joined several Democratic lawmakers in calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' resignation amid reports that he met with the Russian ambassador to the United States on two occasions, despite denying during his confirmation hearing that he had made contact with Russian officials.

"The information reported last night makes it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that Attorney General Sessions cannot possibly lead an investigation into Russian interference in our elections or come anywhere near it," the New York senator and minority leader said of revelations that Sessions had contact with the Russians last year.

He added: "There cannot be even the scintilla of doubt about the impartiality and fairness of the attorney general, the top law enforcement official of the land. After this, it's clear Attorney General Sessions does not meet that test. Because the Department of Justice should be above reproach, for the good of the country, Attorney General Sessions should resign.

Schumers comments echoed those of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Wednesday evening who said, "Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate. Under penalty of perjury, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, 'I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians. We now know that statement is false."

For his part, Sessions said in a statement Wednesday night that, "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."

Other Democratic lawmakers have called for Sessions to resign, while some say he should at least recuse himself from overseeing any investigation into the question of alleged ties between Trump officials and Russians during and after the 2016 election.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., have called for his resignation, as has Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

"It is inconceivable that even after Michael Flynn was fired for concealing his conversations with the Russians that Attorney General Sessions would keep his own conversations secret for several more weeks," said Cummings, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Attorney General Sessions should resign immediately."

According to a Justice Department official, Sessions' meetings with ambassadors were in his capacity as a senator on the Armed Services Committee and about relations between the two countries.

But one of the Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. McCaskill, said that she has never held a call or a meeting with the Russian ambassador.

"Ive been on the Senate Armed Services Committee for 10 years, and in that time, have had no call from, or meeting with, the Russian ambassador," McCaskill said in a statement released this morning. "Ever. Thats because ambassadors call members of Foreign Relations Committee. Attorney General Sessions should resign.

But in light of tweets that surfaced today showing McCaskill had, in fact, met with the ambassador in a group setting, the senator clarified that she has never had a one-on-one meeting with Kislyak, as Sessions did.

She responded on Twitter about her old tweets, arguing that 4 years ago went to meeting of many Senators about international adoptions. Russian Amb also attended, and, Again, As senior member of Armed Serv, never received call or request from Russian Amb for meeting. Never met one on one w/him.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said on Twitter that the attorney general should resign "if it turns out Sessions lied under oath."

Many other lawmakers have stopped short of calling for resignation, but argued that the attorney general should recuse himself from leading Justice Department investigations over the alleged links between Russian officials and Trump officials, as well as Russia's purported involvement in influencing the 2016 election.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said in a statement that "the attorney general cannot, in good faith, oversee an investigation at the Department of Justice and the FBI of the Trump-Russia connection, and he must recuse himself immediately.

Likewise, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., tweeted that Sessions "should recuse himself from investigations into Russia."

Top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., also called for Sessions to recuse himself and said that President Trump should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged Russian interference into the election.

Republican reactions have been mixed. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Oversight Committee chair Jason Chaffetz both said that Sessions should recuse himself, while other Republicans are defending Sessions.

With the notion that there was something somehow wrong with a senior senator on the armed services committee meeting with a foreign ambassador -- I think its a nothing burger," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said this morning on MSNBC.

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Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer wants Sessions to resign for the 'good of the country' - ABC News

Common Dreams

225000 Demand Schumer Drop 'Phony Democrat' Manchin from Party Leadership Common Dreams But progressive leaders like CREDO senior campaign manager Heidi Hess say the West Virginia senator is "a phony Democrat who often votes or acts in conflict with the core values of the Democratic party." "Manchin has failed time and time again to fight ... Manchin moving closer to Trump instead of following Democrats' road to resistanceWashington Times Just one Senate Democrat applauded Trump's call to make America greatVox Left threatens Trump-friendly senators with primary challengesThe Hill all 18 news articles »

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225000 Demand Schumer Drop 'Phony Democrat' Manchin from Party Leadership - Common Dreams

WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee will investigate allegations of collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, the top Democrat on the panel said on Wednesday.

"We have reached a written agreement, the minority and the majority in the House intelligence committee, that we will investigate allegations of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign," Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said on MSNBC.

U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that Russia tried to help Trump win the White House by discrediting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her party through cyber attacks. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, expelled Russian diplomats in retaliation in December.

Trump has denied any of his associates had contacts with Moscow before last year's election and dismissed the controversy as a "scam" perpetrated by a hostile news media.

Moscow has denied the accusations.

Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on Monday U.S. intelligence officials had not yet presented the panel with evidence of contacts between Trump campaign staff and Russian intelligence.

Nunes was a member of Trump's presidential transition team.

The committee, which has been probing contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia, said in a statement that Nunes and Schiff had agreed on a classified six-page document laying out the scope of their investigation.

It said one question they would seek to answer was whether the Russian actions included "links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns or any other U.S. Persons." The statement did not refer specifically to the Trump campaign.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nunes told Fox News that the committee would receive a briefing from intelligence officials on Thursday.

Trump fired his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, last month for misleading Vice President Mike Pence over his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the United States.

(Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Eric Beech and Leslie Adler)

WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to confirm retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in President Donald Trump's Cabinet.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's nominee to run the department overseeing the U.S. government's health programs for the elderly and disabled won the backing of a Senate committee on Thursday, paving the way for a full vote in the Senate.

WASHINGTON A bipartisan pair of lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee are planning to introduce a bill that aims to entice private corporations to give their employees larger equity stakes in their companies and promote longer-term investing.

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House panel to probe possible Russia-Trump campaign collusion: Democrat - Reuters

ROXBURY Although the GOP kept control of the states 32nd Senatorial District in Tuesdays special election, Democrats came closer to winning the heavily Republican district than ever before, losing by 10 points rather than 20 or more.

GOP State Rep. Eric Berthel, of Watertown, received 10,147 votes, while Democratic challenger Greg Cava got 8,321 votes.

Cava, of Roxbury, first ran for the seat in November, when he lost to Republican Robert Kane, an incumbent seeking his fifth term by nearly 16,000 votes out of 50,000 cast, or by 32 percent of the vote. In January, Kane stepped down to become a state auditor, prompting the special election.

Petitioning candidate Dan Lynch, an unaffiliated voter from Middlebury who ran on a $1,000 budget, finished a distant third in the district, which covers 10 towns between Bethlehem and Oxford, including Southbury, Washington, Roxbury and Bridgewater.

Cava said he was glad to receive a higher percentage of the vote than many previous Democratic candidates. He won Washington, Roxbury, Southbury and Seymour and was close in a few other towns.

People decided its time to stop leaving their democracy to chance and to take matters into their own hands, he said. I think thats really a great thing for our democracy.

National Democrats are touting Cavas showing as a sign of the publics discontent with President Donald Trump. Newly elected Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez had this to say:

Democrats also came within approximately 1,800 votes of flipping the most Republican Senate district in the entire state, showing that even Republicans running in GOP strongholds arent safe from the shadow of Trump, Perez said. Republican politicians across the country should be shaking in their boots at the thought of defending Trumps disastrous presidency at the ballot box.

Berthel could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but in an interview following his victory Tuesday he said Cavas appeal to voters dissatisfied with Trump backfired. He said the districts voters were more interested in state issues.

Other possible factors in Cavas closing the gap include it was a special election, which tend to draw far fewer voters than presidential elections. The combined vote for Cava and Berthel was about 1,000 greater than Cava received in November.

The presence of a third-party candidate was another factor, as was Cavas run against a five-term incumbent in November, as opposed to a one-term state representative seeking to move to the Senate.

The 32nd District race received national attention in other ways. Cava had volunteers helping from across the state and country. He even had a phone bank set up in Los Angeles for a month. A production crew from Vice Video followed Cava throughout the campaign, filming a documentary that is set to air online.

People are concerned, Cava said. People are more electrified about politics now since November.

Even with the national attention, Cava said, most of his conversations while campaigning focused on state issues, including the economy, the budget and womens issues.

Cava believes the race gained attention because it was one of the first races following the presidential election and featured a Democrat running in a historically Republican district.

It was gratifying, but also humbling to be part of peoples aspirations and hope, he said.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345

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Democrat closes gap in Republican district - Danbury News Times

I was once a Democrat. In those days, I thought I was on the team of truth, justice, and the American way. It was fun to be a Democrat then. But...Bye, bye Miss American Pie. Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry. I woke up.

I'm no longer a Democrat (it's been many years now), and though ontherarest ofoccasions IworriedI'd made a mistake, Tuesday night watching the shell-shocked faces of the Democrats on the floor of Congress while Donald Trump delivered his magnificent speech, I knew I had made no error. I even wondered what was going on in my head in those isolatedmoments I doubted myself.

The Democratic Party members watching that speech looked like a partyof the living dead. They didn't know how to react. They didn't know if they were Americans. They didn't know who they were.

Every time Trump called for bipartisanship for the good of our country, they winced. They couldn't stand it and didn't know how to react because they are the least bipartisan people in the world and they scarcely know what cooperatingis. Working together is not in their natures. Yes, they talk about it endlessly but they never do it. (See: the history of the Soviet Union) Maybe it's not in their DNA. (I should check mine.)

When the speech was over -- after there was no longer a dry eye in the house from the introduction of the widow of the Navy SEAL -- they left the room faster than fans of the losing team after the Super Bowl, only in this case they left so stunned you had to wonder if they would ever win the game again or even compete.

The Democrats -- the silly ladies dressed in white and all the others -- betthe house that Trumpwould make a fool of himself and Donald cut the legs out from under them. And when you bet the house and lose, you go home bankrupt. And without a home to go to.

Hecut the Democrats' legs outinthe worst way, exposing them for theempty party they are with nothing going for thembut identity politics. Yet, it is becoming increasingly obvious that if anyone does anything for the inner cities, it will be Trump the builder, not the Democrats who had a chancefor fiftyor sixty years and did nothing. Bye, bye, identity politics. No wonder Maxine Waters is so apoplectic.

Yes, Trump delivered a speech for the ages. Tucker Carlson, who is solidifying his position asthe most perceptivepundit on television, again got it right, saying the president had "set the template" for future presidentialaddresses. He had. Bravo to him and to speechwriter Stephen Miller, who is rapidly becoming the most distinguished graduate ever of Santa Monica High, where he was supposedly persona non grata while he attended.

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Is February 28, 2017, 'The Night the Democratic Party Died'? - PJ Media