re: WAPO: Sessions only member of 2016 Armed Services to meet RUS amb

quote:

---

so he should have been able to look at his answer and realize that it wasn't quite right

---

Based on his understanding of the context of the question (which he clarified), it was right.

quote:

---

(he admitted as much in his press conference today).

---

That was based on the new information (I.e. the uproar of his answers not jiving with the facts of his work as a member of the Armed Services Committee). He also contextualized that.

If I asked you, "in the course of your work as an art curator, have you ever been to Washington D.C." and you answered "No," it wouldn't be misleading if later I found out that you had gone there on a vacation once. Sure you might later think 'Hmm, I wonder if I should have mentioned that I had been to D.C. but that's not what we were talking about, so I guess I'm good,' I wouldn't expect you to proactively correct the record if you truly thought the answer was truthful and representative of the context of the question.

Now, if you unequivocally said "I have not once been to D.C.," I would of course wonder if you were intentionally misleading. But at the end of the day, you answered the question honestly based on the context of the question, so I'm not sure I would have a case that you were misleading. Especially in the setting he is in, he is responsible to answer the question as it is presented and in the context of the hearing. If Franken wanted to know if he had ever, in his time in the Senate, spoken to the Russian ambassador, he should have made that clear (not to mention explain the relevance).

This is getting worse by the news cycle. Trump and company need to stop the bleeding.