BIG BREAK

Pro-Sessions Dem Manchin Says AG Should Resign If He Lied

Only Democrat to vote for him as A.G.

Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, told The Daily Beast on Thursday that Jeff Sessions should resign as attorney general if he lied about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador during the 2016 election. Manchin was the only Democratic senator to vote confirm Sessions as attorney general. Manchin said, “If you lie to the committee, absolutely. If you lie to the committee and you’re under oath, and you're going to be the attorney general, if you’re going to be any function of government… the people have to have trust in you.” He continued, “I voted for him because I did trust him, absolutely. And I’ve said, point blank, when it came out about the Mike Flynn investigation, I called Jeff and said, ‘Jeff, you should recuse yourself—get the heck out of the way!’ And he said he would take the matter into consideration. And I said, ‘you better do more than take it under consideration—you should do it.’” He concluded: “If it comes down to he lied, then there's no way that Jeff can continue on.”

— Tim Mak

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