Letter to the attorney general, testifyement to set in front of the senate committee. Fouran call 202 7488001 republicans, and 202 7488000 four democrats. If you are an independent, you can call 202 7488002. Join us ono facebook. Thank you so much for being with us. With the latest relevant from the Washington Post, this is a headline as attorney general Jeff Sessions will not testify budgetngressional hearing, but instead of the Senate Intelligence committee. Heres reporting from the Washington Post. Back in march, the Washington Post reported that general jeffs attorney general Jeff Sessions met twice with Russian Ambassadors during the campaign and did not disclose that to the Senate Judiciary committee during his confirmation hearing in january. The next day, sessions recused himself from the russia investigation and said it would be overseen by the Deputy Attorney general, who last month appointed a special counsel to handle the situation. In a member to congress, the attorney general said regarding it isimony, i important that i have an opportunity to address these matters in an appropriate forum. The senateo say Intelligence Committee is the most appropriate form for these matters, as it has been conducting an investigation and has access to relevant classified information. We are here with the coeditor politicos playbook. Being here with us. Thank you. What does this mean . So i think the take away from sessions testimony is that he wants to try to clear the air, because with comeys testimony, which kind of implied that there russianshere with the and sessions, i think he feels like there has been a lot of accusations against him and has not really addressed them into a taboo forum. And the various question statements every so often, defending himself, they have not clearly done the trick either. But this was not expected, was it . When they came out yesterday . No, it was not expected. I think he basically was going to testify in front of the budget committee, but then he realized that he would face a ton of questions, mostly about russia, and comey and trump, and so he felt like he should do it in the proper forum, which is the set Intelligence Committee. Senate Intelligence Committee, even though it opens himself up to getting more attention. So it is a calculated risk on his part, because you start spending this entire weekend prepping these answers because he does not want to perjure himself, he wants to come across as the best he can. I want to followup on a story you featured last week in playbook. The headline, the president growing discontent over attorney general Jeff Sessions. I want to redo a section. Few republicans were quicker to a brace obamas Public Campaign lester than Jeff Sessions, jeff last year then sessions, but this display in past monday in a series of stark , Early Morning postings on twitter were the president faulted his own Justice Department on the travel ban. Mr. Trump accused mr. Sessions department of devising a politically correct version of the ban as if the president had nothing to do with it. In private, the president s exasperation has been even sharper. He has intermittently fumed for months over sessions decision to recuse himself from the investigation into russian meddling into last years election, and mr. Trump said it was that recusal that led to the point of the special counsel who took over the investigation. What more can you tell us about this story and what is going on in the Trump White House with the president specifically . I think the more important context is that session has done this several times, to push himself out of the headlines and also because he felt like he had become a liability to trump. If trump is constantly criticizing him, why should you stay in office . I think sessions feels like he is trying to do the best job he can, he felt like the ethics lawyers, they basically recommended that he recuse himself because he had contacts with russia, he was a huge surrogate for the trump campaign, and so even though he supports the president , he recognizes that it would be hard for him to remain impartial about this investigation. Less he cares less about the norms and practices that a refusal that a recusal why there is a recusal. He wants to do what he wants. So i think trump often gets, distant tented he gets discontented with members of his own white house, all his senior advisers must feel like he is not always looking out for them, tries to make snide comments, and then they cyber each other, so i do not think sessions will get fired by trump, because that will create more problems. But there is a clear divide between the white house and the doj, because the white house createdke sessions has more problems, and Rod Rosenstein is not loyal because he appointed bob mueller, who could take down the president. That is what i am hearing from my sources, and we know Rod Rosenstein will be the person rosensteinnow rod will be the person testifying on monday. I want to turn to some other issues. The Senate Continues the debate over health care. There has been some speculation of the Senate Republican leader is invoking rule 14, which bypasses the committee process, fast tracking the bill to the senate floor, but now politico is reporting that the timeline is shifting yet again. What can you tell us today . I think we are going to have to make a choice in how much when how much longer they will spend trashing the Health Care Bill when it is in the way of other priorities were the president and her public and legislat of the president and republican legislature. Reform, looking at tax and for structure, increasing the debt ceiling, all of those issues are under the radar because people are talking about health care. So republicans are facing the same challenge that the house did, in that you have this entitlement, which millions of americans get health care off of, but and you want to tear down obama care but do not want to leave millions of people without health coverage, because that would be deadly for republicans next year in the midterms, because democrats would run millions of dollars of ads saying why did you take away all of the Peoples Health care . They need to do this in a way that preserves the core of obamacare but instead of repealing it, they are framing it in a very tricky way. And annexed couple of weeks, you will see either a successful bill or they will decide to move on. They will turn their attention to actually other issues that a big tax cutike or tax reform, which he feels would, you know, give the economy a shot in the arm. Host a big tax cut or tax reform, which he feels playbook is the morning mustread here in washington dc, Daniel Lipman is the coeditor. Check it out online at politico. Com. Thank you for being with us. Lets turn to some of your tweets and get to your calls on Jeff Sessions testifying on tuesday. It is best forys the attorney general to come clean about the prospects of collusion or face the prospect of jail. And from virginia, texas. The president is right on both points. Sessions should not have been ban defense muslim has been wimpy. , trump grows sour on anyone who does not do his bidding. He is a psychopath. Lets go to martinsburg, west virginia. Good morning. Caller i do hope they do fine mr. Sessions guilty of perjury. Tocould not wait [indiscernible] and lock up the lack and brown people black and brown giving them the maximum sentences so people can come with the private prisons. Everybody is robbing from the top down. I do not know how people raise their kids when the government is so corrupted . They are going to be coming in airplanes ps and who is President Trump . Host new york city, democrats line. Good morning. Caller i think sessions shenzhens should be brought forward, and i know he is afraid, because if you have to deal with mr. Rochester, he would know that [indiscernible] this messy got himself into. The russian situation is a situation. Can you tell me why that this is a separate issue why is it people whothat disenfranchised people from voting come from the republican side . The crosschecking, i know the is more of ag thing were democrats and a are involved, but the crosschecking is more of a republican thing, and it has been very successful in taking people off the voter roll. Host i think you answered your own question. Caller but why is it coming more from the republican side . Host our independent line, from new york city. Good morning. Caller i do not things to sessions has anything to hide. He is not afraid to come forward. I said i will step aside, you find what you will find. And it is the same democrat hypocrites if hillary, god god forbid, would have won, they would have been saying the same thing. Where are the back talent intochannels in collusion that . There you really have something . Republicans make mountains out of mole hills, and democrats reduce them. They are all bunch of hypocrites and the Trump Administration has nothing to hide, and i have never been more proud of my country that trump is now in charge. That is just the way it is. Host anthony, from edison, new jersey. This tweet, referring to now if the eye fired fbi director comey. Fbi director comey. With you there reporting from cnn, the weekends developments into Deputy Attorney general attorney general Jeff Sessions will testify in front of the Senate Intelligence committee. Him more directly in the firing line of her questions about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the United States and a federal investigation into russian attempts to infiltrate influence the 2016 election. Onsions was to testify tuesday to oversee the budget, but Rod Rosenstein will go before them instead. They explained to the senate. Ommittees on saturday lets go to robin port crane, new york. Independent line. The morning. Caller i think this whole russia thing as a distraction from the real story, which is not on our news in this country. That is the Debbie Wasserman schultz had a spy ring running the computers for the democrats. Host what is your source for that, rob . I sought on blacklisted news and russia today. To get any kind of news, you get it on cspan or overseas, because our media is dropping the ball terribly. Trust russia today is a news source . Cnn, fox, orred to and is in bc, i trust russia more than i trust any of our National News in this country . Host why is that . Caller because they have the hard stories the media does not want to touch, and they put a spin on it to make them look good. They put the facts out there on rt. Worry about not misinformation, which can admittedly be in American Media as well, or propaganda on those sites . Caller i do, but i take everything with a grain of salt. But when i see everything on the media in this country, and it is something they have blown out of proportion or does the democrats in charge of the media that spin things around to make the republicans in the present look bad. Host thank you for the call. The wall street journal reporting earlier that the attorney general had come on the number of occasions, offered to had, on a number of occasions, offered to resign amid tensions with donald trump. Okeechobee, florida, republican line. Caller i have a comment to make an something to talk about with sessions. As far as President Trump, i voted for the man, i am sticking with him no matter what. I think he is one of the best president s we have ever had, but pizza lay off of sessions he needs to lay off of sessions. He is doing the best he hcan and he he can and he should not be discussing that with the public. And you, steve, ok . I have been noticing you for the past couple of weeks. Every time an antitrump are comes on there, you let them overand rave, and they go and over and over again, but the same line or same subject, same message that they got, and it goes on and on and on. But when a protrump are comes on there, you interrupt them, ask them questions, try to get downfrom back to bank back down. But you have a nasty habit of letting the antitrump ares rant and rave. Host i wasnt here on thursday, but i appreciate your comment. Caller the last time you were on for the weekend. Have a great day. Host thank you for adding your voice to the conversation. Jeff sessions has already lied under oath once, so what is to stop them from lying again . And from michael, lots of speculation but very little fact from any of the news reports. Mcconnell is not letting out the letting the cat out of the bag quite yet. The president has asked the senate to pass some sort of bill before the july 4 recess. And there is this from carol, withays does anybody care attorney general Loretta Lynch lied about a meeting with bill clinton on the tarmac when a sharp reporter knew about it the day before . From new york, welcome to the conversation. Steve, i wantyou, to say that you do a very good job and you handle it very well. Do not worry about the negative comments. Passionatee are about this, and we understand on all sides of the spectrum. That is what we are here for. Caller i would not want to be in your shoes. You do it very well. That theseed to say hearings, the house and the Senate Intelligence committee, a lot of those senators do try very hard to do the right thing. Instance,ris was, for and people of these questions do say oh, i cannot tell you that. Oh, that is a secret. I would love to answer so that is what sessions is going to do. It is right up his alley, he looks like he is compliant, but he has watched what other people have gotten away with, and will just say oh, that is the secret, i cannot answer. And it is said that these committees are so toothless, but was whenly bothered me i rosenstein, who i really have been admiring to this point, refused to say simply that he independence of mueller. He danced around that, and that was very disappointing, because i have respect for him. Anyway, i do think that sessions is just playing a game, and we just need to learn a lot from s presidency and change rules and enact more laws so that the president should have to do what everyone else does, and not be involved in outside interests. So just saying i do not think i will be looking forward to sessions testimony. I do not think we will learn much. Thank you. Host thank you, from cheryl, new york. Couple of tweets in reference to our previous color in port crane, new york. Someone says robert needs to know that rt is russia today, and a propaganda channel from the russian government. In is a one, put couple she his mission putins come pushing his mission. Reppo kens republicans are calling in cspan and stress incontinence and Russian Media propaganda. Politics to talk about and Great Britain as well. We will have the latest from the london telegraph, but first, fort lauderdale, florida. Good morning, jim. Caller good morning. Im glad theyre calling of attorney general Jeff Sessions, and i wish they would call of jury fisher to jerry fisher to testify right after him because i think that Jared Kushner because i think the president going to be quite important disappointed with him. Up, they are calling him but that will be offcamera, presumably. Caller getting him to testify in the open. Jeff sessions, i believe, is he is not going to be in the same room with somebody like this. I do not realize that shaking somebodys hand counted as a meeting. Collusionis russian with him is going to be a great big disappointment for the press, and when they talked to Jared Kushner and find out what he was trying to accomplish, particularly to the benefit of the United States, it will be shameful that this guy has been characterized the way he has been. Leaks that people say hurt hillary clinton, 90 of them did not come from any russian leaking, it came from the benghazi ends investigation, which turned up her secret server, which she should have never had, and the freedom of information people got most of those emails out in the public arena. It did not have much to do with any collusion. As far as threats to the United States, let me list a few that i am terrified of in comparison to what has been coming out. Number one, political party, the democratic party, colluding to do in one of its own National Candidates that is a huge threat. Host thank you for the call. Well go back to reporting on attorneyy general from the los angeles times, as he is facing a new round of scrutiny. This story online and l. A. Times. Com. Here some reporting from that senator they were examining whether attorney general Jeff Sessions had a third, undisclosed discussion with a senior russian diplomat to Washington Hotel last year. Information indicated that sessions may have had a private lacknter with surrogates kislyak, the Russian Ambassador to washington. A Justice Department spokesperson denying that sessions has spoken to the russian envoy about tell. The dalton was the latest to