It’s too early to ask for the resignation of Jeff Sessions
The Trump administration, in the eyes of many, is guilty of one scandal and indiscretion after another. The latest controversy involves the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, long held in disdain by liberals for his poor record on Civil Rights, who had denied under oath speaking with the Russians during the 2016 campaign, but recently admitted that he’d spoken to a Russian government operative during that time frame. As a result, in a press conference on Thursday, Sessions recused himself from the Justice Department investigations into the Trump campaign’s controversial Russian dealings.
The question now is, what should we do about this revelation? Sessions’ recusal is clearly warranted, but is it enough? Nancy Pelosi and other prominent democrats have called for Sessions to resign, or be removed from office, since he apparently lied under oath. Indeed, the recent developments are of great concern, and Pelosi and others are right to raise the alarm and investigate further. But calling for his ouster is premature. Often, when we see smoke, there is a fire, but we should remember, that’s not always the case. We need to establish the facts, and a time line of what actually unfolded, in order to make prudent choices.
It is paramount that we learn everything that happened, and make level-headed decisions based on evidence. It is critical that we make this process as bipartisan as possible (a genuine challenge in these divided times) and leave no doubt in the minds of reasonable Americans that justice, not partisan revenge, was the true goal. The guilty should be punished, but we must not forget, in our zeal to do justice, that due process is the key to making fair and reliable decisions that best serve our democracy, and the American People.
The American People deserve to know exactly what happened, who is responsible, and for what reasons these events transpired. If Attorney General Jeff Sessions transgressed, then we should understand the circumstances, and the extent of his transgression(s) in order to act appropriately. And the only way to achieve that goal is via a thorough investigation. After all the facts are gathered, weighed for relevance and assessed by legal experts, we will be able to determine, with reasonable confidence, the correct course of action.
Photo: By DonkeyHotey (Jeff Sessions – Caricature) CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
