Youd actually expect all the candidates to be pretty aggressively hawkish on russia, particularly after russia had just invaded one of their neighbors. But it was interesting. In that senate primary, that Republican Senate primary in 2014, this one primary candidate, the local talk radio host, he really went the other way. He called himself a former Pentagon Expert on russia and he told radio iowa that, quote, pushing the russians out of crimea is not a realistic option. He said, quote, i think a lot of people, im not sure they understand the history of russia. You go back, you know, 1,500 years to the foundation of the russian empire. It actually started in ukraine and was evolved out of that. This whole issue is about as russian as it gets, meaning russia should be allowed to take parts of ukraine. Thats russias business, not anybody elses. And this candidate apparently felt pretty passionately about it. He went on in some detail,
carter page also turns up in the indictment of a russ
of this campaign, what will you do? senator franken, i m not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians and i m unable to comment on it. that was under oath. then senator jeff sessions during his confirmation hearings to become attorney general telling the senate he didn t have communications with russians during the campaign. it was later reported that senator sessions did have communications with russians during the campaign. when that emerged in march, senator sessions at first continued to deny it, then he admitted it while recusing himself while overseeing any justice department matters involving the campaign but still insisted these meetings that he did take with russians that he d forgotten about, he still insisted they weren t about the campaign. let me be clear i never had meetings with russian
russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? senator franken, i m not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians and i m unable to comment on it. that was under oath. then senator jeff sessions during his confirmation hearings to become attorney general telling the senate he didn t have communications with russians during the campaign. it was later reported that senator sessions did have communications with russians during the campaign. when that emerged in march, senator sessions at first continued to deny it, then he admitted it while recusing himself while overseeing any justice department matters involving the campaign but still insisted these meetings that he did take with russians that he d forgotten about, he still insisted they weren t about the campaign.