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Remember that the plural of “attorney general” is “attorneys general” ― for example: “Scandal-plagued President Trump has already had to nominate two attorneys general.” Current Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied discussing campaign matters with Russia’s ambassadors, though we were disappointed that America’s foremost Southern gentleman farmer didn’t say, “WHAT WE HAD HERE-UH, WAS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE.” And Rick Perry was confirmed as the country’s next energy secretary, and looks forward to getting down to work just as soon as he learns what a centrifuge is. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, March 2nd, 2017:
SESSIONS BRIEFLY DISTRACTED FROM MAKING VOTING HARDER - Christina Wilkie: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself on Thursday from any Justice Department investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election, as well as any inquiries into ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russian officials. ‘I have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaign for president of the United States,’ Sessions said at a press conference at the DOJ…. On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak two times last year. Since then, the attorney general has faced growing bipartisan demands from Congress that he recuse himself from the investigations. Sessions previously told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath that he had not had any ‘communications with the Russians’ during the presidential campaign.” [HuffPost]
Congressional Republicans started piling on this morning: “A growing number of Republicans in Congress are questioning whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions is fit to oversee an investigation into Russia’s role in the election.” [HuffPost’s Laura Barron-Lopez and Michael McAuliff]
Kislyak was busy last year! “Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to ‘establish a line of communication’ between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador.” [NYT’s Michael S. Schmidt, Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo]
DEMS CALL FOR SESSIONS RESIGNATION - Laura Barron-Lopez and Michael McAuliff: “Democratic leaders on both sides of Capitol Hill called on Sessions to resign entirely. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said ‘it would be better for the country.’ House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sessions ‘lied under oath.’ The bombshell revelations left many Republicans scrambling to come up with answers, with many saying they needed more information about what Sessions said to the Judiciary Committee and what he discussed with the ambassador…. Some, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), were clearly irked to keep learning of Trump administration contacts with Russians through the media, and left open the chance that they would also call for recusal. Graham said he would meet with FBI Director James Comey on Thursday to discuss the ongoing Russia investigation, and demand to know whether Sessions is a subject of the probe.” [HuffPost]
Sessions was the only Armed Services Committee member who met with the Russian ambassador last year, WaPo reports.
GUY WITH PERFECT ETHICS TRACK RECORD UNPERTURBED BY SESSIONS NEWS - Karoun Demirjian, Ed O’Keefe and Abby Phillip: “President Trump said Thursday that he has ‘total’ confidence in Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has come under fire for not disclosing his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 presidential campaign. Speaking aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford in Newport News, Va., Trump told reporters that he was not aware of Sessions’s contact with the Russian ambassador. Trump also said that Sessions ‘probably’ testified truthfully during his confirmation hearing last month before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Asked whether Sessions should recuse himself, Trump added: ‘I don’t think so.’” [WaPo]
Spice up your life: “White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Thursday defended embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions amid reports that Sessions misled senators about two meetings he had last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. ‘There’s nothing to recuse himself [over], he was 100 percent straight with the committee, and I think people who are choosing to play partisan politics with this should be ashamed of themselves,’ Spicer told Fox News Channel’s Abby Huntsman, in an interview scheduled to air Friday morning.’” [HuffPost’s Christina Wilkie]
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OBAMA ADMINISTRATION LEFT RUSSIA INTELLIGENCE TO ALLIES - While it left a series of microwavable meals for the incoming administration. Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman and Michael S. Schmidt: “In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators. American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence. Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates.” [NYT]
REPEAL-AND-REPLACE GOING SWIMMINGLY - House Republicans have managed to turn Rand Paul into a hero for liberals. Matt Fuller: “After years of complaining about the secretive way Democrats drafted the Affordable Care Act, Republicans locked a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare in an undisclosed room for only select members to review, setting off a theatrical search on Thursday that had Democrats wandering Capitol halls and knocking on random doors…. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), hearing the room number, decided to cross the dome and try to read the bill himself, but staffers wouldn’t let him in. ‘It’s the secret office of the secret bill,’ Paul said, with a copy machine in tow. He later called the whole thing ‘crazy.’ … ‘We cannot find the bill, [House Minority Whip Steny] Hoyer [(D-Md.)] said, in faux shock. Hoyer then led reporters into the hallway, where he had a conversation with a large bust of Abraham Lincoln. ‘Mr. Lincoln, you said public sentiment is everything,’ Hoyer said. ‘But if the public can’t see the bill, they can’t give us their sentiment. That’s not regular order. That’s not democracy.’” [HuffPost]
CONSERVATIVES TORN OVER DACA - But they expect results on tearing up the NAFTA Highway. Elise Foley: “President Donald Trump is mostly getting a pass from his fellow Republicans and immigration hardliners for doing the very thing they castigated his predecessor for: giving undocumented young people work permits. But beneath that silence there’s a divide among conservatives. Some are fine with Trump biding his time, even if it means he’s breaking a campaign promise that he’d end President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which grants temporary work authorization and deportation reprieve to young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Others, including Trump’s allies, are losing patience. ‘When a president takes an oath to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, that means he needs to enforce the laws. He doesn’t get to choose which laws will be enforced,’ Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told The Huffington Post. ‘That’s the problem we had with Obama, and we have this problem five weeks into the Trump presidency right now.’” [HuffPost]
Add this one into the feet-shooting hall of fame: “Proving that vile sexism plagues both political parties, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) made the worst kind of joke about Kellyanne Conway Wednesday night, quipping that the top adviser to President Donald Trump ‘really looked kind of familiar there in that position’ when she was kneeling on the Oval Office couch. ‘You even mentioned Kellyanne and the picture on the sofa,’ Richmond said at the Washington Press Club’s annual congressional dinner. ‘But I really just want to know what was going on there, because, I won’t tell anybody. And you can just explain to me that — that circumstance, because she really looked kind of familiar there in that position there. But don’t answer. And I don’t want you to refer back to the ‘90s.’” [HuffPost’s Laura Bassett]
Democrats gonna Democrat: “Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Thursday drew jeers from Republicans after claiming she had never met with the Russian ambassador while calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign — despite evidence of two prior encounters with the controversial envoy.” [Politico’s Elana Schor and Seung Min Kim]
TRUMP WON’T LET HEEL SPURS STOP HIM SUPPORTING THE TROOPS - Giving a speech on an aircraft carrier has never gone wrong for any president. David Jackson and Gregory Korte: “President Trump visited a new aircraft carrier in eastern Virginia on Thursday, promoting his plan to embark on what he called ‘a great rebuilding of our military might.’ … ‘It is a monument to American might that will provide the strength necessary to ensure peace,’ he said in a speech replete with militaristic imagery and wearing a hat and jacket emblazoned with the carrier’s name. ‘Hopefully, it’s power we don’t have to use. But if we do, they’re in big, big trouble.’” [USA Today]
SURGEON/PYRAMID SKEPTIC CONFIRMED AS HUD SECRETARY - Please recall the time Ben Carson said he wasn’t qualified for this job. Eric Walsh: “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. Carson, who ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and later endorsed Trump, becomes the only African-American in the Trump Cabinet. The Senate confirmed his appointment by a vote of 58 to 41. During his confirmation hearing in January, Carson, 65, told the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs that he would monitor any potential conflicts of interest between his agency and properties controlled by Trump. He also told lawmakers he was fit to lead HUD, an agency whose mission includes helping the poor get housing, even though he has sometimes criticized its work.” [Reuters]
CONGRATS TO SECRETARY OOPS - Sure, okay, whatever. Abby Livingston: “The U.S. Senate approved the confirmation of Rick Perry as the next secretary of the Department of Energy on Thursday. The vote was 62-37.... Perry will now take over the very department he famously forgot during a presidential debate in 2011 while trying to list the three he wanted to eliminate.” [Texas Tribune]
New Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke rode a horse to work today. Yes, he did.
PUTIN INSULTED W’S DOG - Christ, what a jerk. Erin Jensen: “Bush explained the Russian president was not impressed after meeting Bush’s dog Barney, a Scottish Terrier. ‘(Putin) kind of dissed him,’ Bush explained. ‘He looked at him like, “You think that’s a dog?” A year later Putin said, “Would you like to meet my dog?” Laura (Bush’s wife) and I were with Putin in this dacha outside of Moscow and she said, “Ya I’d like to meet him,” and out comes a giant hound kind of loping across the yard, and Putin looks at me and says, “Bigger, stronger, and faster than Barney.”’ Moral of the story, the 43rd president explained: ‘He’s got a chip on his shoulder,’ adding, ‘I had a contentious relationship with him and I think whoever the president is, is going to find out that Putin will push and push and push until somebody stands up to him.’” [USA Today]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s an excited pig.
RETIRED MAN TO TRY WRITING - You know, when he’s not tending to his diecast model car collection. Kim Bellware: “Penguin Random House will publish forthcoming books by Barack and Michelle Obama, the publisher announced Tuesday. The former president and first lady will publish separate books, but jointly sold the rights. The auction to secure the publishing deal for the two books topped $60 million. The figure is a record-breaking total for presidential memoirs, the Financial Times reported. The rights to Bill Clinton’s 2004 autobiography, ‘My Life,’ netted $15 million; George W. Bush’s 2010 ‘Decision Points’ scored an estimated $10 million. Obama, who left office in January at the age of 55 (young by the average standards of previous presidents), has said his immediate post-presidency plans include a vacation with Michelle and writing a book. A portion of the book advances will be donated to charity, including the Obama Foundation, The New York Times reports. The books are expected to be released sometime in 2018.” [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- Using helium to hit that high note.
- Meet Fritz’s suicidal dog.
- Ninety-five-year-old man comes out of the closet.
TWITTERAMA
@morninggloria: Now now now no Russian to conclusions
@JSwiftTWS: Schumer just said: “I am not a lawy..” then realized, yes, he is a lawyer.
Pivoted to say “legal expert.”
@pareene: good viral marketing to present the Obamacare replacement as an interactive ARG/scavenger hunt
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