Democrat Controversy on AG Jeff Sessions by George J. Chanos

Democrats trying to sustain a controversy around U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 election are overplaying their hand, a Washington Post reporter said Thursday.

Philip Bump wrote a timeline on Sessions’ interactions with the Russian ambassador:

With George’s permission I am posting his response to the article that was shared on Facebook. be

 

George Chanos shared your post.

#Russia. #Distractions #Malfeasance.

This has been a Democratic theme since the election. It has already been investigated, supposedly by 17 intelligence agencies, yielding zero evidence of actionable wrongdoing.

All of the drama surrounding this issue, amounts to nothing more than speculation, innuendo, conjecture and grandstanding. There is zero evidence of actual wrongdoing.

Unable to deliver, the Democrats have openly announced that they have decided to "resist".

Distraction, division and distortion are the handmaidens of this "resistance". Democrats have become the party who cried wolf, and they are suffering huge credibility damage as a consequence. The same is true of their allies in the media.

Yes, Republicans obstructed Obama. It was wrong then and it is wrong now. At some point, it needs to stop. How long will we allow this to continue? How much more dysfunction can we endure?

While it may offer some measure of satisfaction, to poke out the eye of the guy who poked out yours, that approach yields nothing but blindness. We deserve better than that.

Resistance, is the antithesis of progress. It's not a badge of courage. It's not an effective strategy. Instead, it's evidence of incompetence. It's proof of an inability to build consensus and/or perform at a higher level.

The "Russian distraction", is transparently political and, given the myriad of real problems we face, indefensible.

We don't need Congress pursuing fruitless endeavors. We need them focusing on real problems that are facing real people. We need them to be constructive. We need them to work across party lines. We need them to do their jobs!

Sessions did NOT lie about anything. He was asked about meetings with Russians, relating to the campaign. He had NO meetings with Russians, relating to the campaign.

Moreover, there is zero evidence that he did anything improper, in meeting with the Russian Ambassador, as a sitting U.S. Senator. Sessions met with multiple foreign ambassadors, during that same period, including the Ukrainian Ambassador.

Should he have volunteered that information. Yes, in hindsight he should have. But few people, answering the question posed, would have. He was not obligated to offer information that went beyond the question asked. He was obligated to answer the question asked truthfully. He did that, based on his reasonable understanding of the question asked. There is no evidence whatsoever of any intent to evade. Moreover, it would have made absolutely no sense to do so, given the innocuous nature of the meetings in question - meetings that were widely know to have occurred. There's nothing here.

To be asking for his resignation is absurd. It makes people like Pelosi look like an irrational caricature. If Democrats continue their irrational, obstructionist behavior, voters will hold them responsible in 2018 and 2020.

This witch hunt will yield nothing! And the partisan hacks who are calling for an investigation, which yields nothing, are costing all of us precious resources, focus and time. They are not advancing our national interests and they should and will be held accountable at the polls.

The Democratic Party charted a failed course in 2016. The indisputable evidence of that was Trump's election. Yet rather than change course, they have allowed those who charted that failed course, to keep their hands on the wheel. Obama, now operating from the sidelines, is one of those hands. HRC, one of the least trusted figures in U.S. politics, is another.

Neither Obama nor HRC were ever able to cross party lines and build consensus. The were both highly polarizing figures.

Trump needs to try to be different. He needs to at least try, to again overcome insurmountable odds, and build consensus.

I don't envy him. Democrats are determined to deny him that opportunity. They think that's the only way they can win. Only by destroying Trump, some D's believe, can they succeed.

They're wrong. It's a false premise. By destroying the POTUS, they harm all of us and they lose future elections as a consequence.

You win with winning ideas, ideas that are widely embraced, ideas that reflect the will of the people, and are therefore able to generate bipartisan consensus.

The important point here, is that consensus building should not be the exception to the rule. It should be the rule. And we as citizens need to demand that our elected representatives, both Republicans and Democrats, adhere to that rule.

Absent compromise and consensus, victories are fleeting and unsustainable. No one wins.

By chasing a non-existent Russian conspiracy, D's have once again charted a failed course, one that in the end, will only serve to increase support for Trump.

Anyone who thinks that this is a winning strategy for Democrats, is in for a rude awakening in 2018 and 2020. Absent a significant course correction, Democrats are going to get trounced in future elections.