Was Sessions a part of the Trump campaign at the time he spoke with the Russian ambassador? If not, than I am at a loss as to what the big deal is? If he talked to the ambassador as a part of his senatorial duties, the misspeak is just that, and not an out and out lie.

(CNN) Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice last year with the top Russian diplomat in Washington whose interactions with President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn led to Flynn’s firing, according to the Justice Department.

Sessions did not mention either meeting during his confirmation hearings when he said he knew of no contacts between Trump surrogates and Russians. A Justice official said Sessions didn’t mislead senators during his confirmation.

I’m not interested in pearl clutching and hysterics at this time. I’d much prefer to wait until the FBI does its report.

Update: Well, it appears he was attached to the Trump campaign at the time.

(Business Insider) The advisory team, headed by US Senator Jeff Sessions, includes terrorism expert Walid Phares, energy industry executive Carter Page, international energy lawyer George Papadopoulos, former government inspector general Joe Schmitz, and former Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, he told the Post in an on-the-record editorial board meeting, according to the media company.

Okay, all the years of the Bush II Administration and never was a lie called out as a lie. Even the vaulted New York Times failed to call a lie a lie.

(New York Times) WASHINGTON — President Trump used his first full day in office on Saturday to unleash a remarkably bitter attack on the news media, falsely accusing journalists of both inventing a rift between him and intelligence agencies and deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd.

In a visit to the Central Intelligence Agency intended to showcase his support for the intelligence community, Mr. Trump ignored his own repeated public statements criticizing the intelligence community, a group he compared to Nazis just over a week ago.

See those words there? The ones I highlighted? Yeah, that’s calling out lies.

Good on ya, New York Times!

Update: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” – George Orwell

The story concerns a farmer who finds a viper freezing in the snow. Taking pity on it, he picks it up and places it within his coat. The viper, revived by the warmth, bites his rescuer, who dies realizing that it is his own fault. The story is recorded in both Greek and Latin sources. In the former, the farmer dies reproaching himself “for pitying a scoundrel,” while in the version by Phaedrus the snake says that he bit his benefactor “to teach the lesson not to expect a reward from the wicked.” The latter sentiment is made the moral in Medieval versions of the fable. Odo of Cheriton‘s snake answers the farmer’s demand for an explanation with a counter-question, “Did you not know that there is enmity and natural antipathy between your kind and mine? Did you not know that a serpent in the bosom, a mouse in a bag and fire in a barn give their hosts an ill reward?”

Because it seems lessons for the populous are usually not learned by the populous.