CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King could barely hide excitement on Friday as she talked about Jeff Sessions recusing himself from any investigation into Russia’s connections with the 2016 election. Talking to Face the Nation's John Dickerson, she enthused, “It is like a song out of Empire. That drip, drip dripity drop where we just heard the President say, ‘No one I know has had contact.’”
King, it should be reminded, is a Democratic donor. Earlier, she asked Dickerson how the President could put the story behind him. After allowing that one way would be for Trump to pass his agenda, he seemed to convict: “For there to stop being situations where you have people connected to the administration saying things that are at odds with the truth.”
Later, Dickerson allowed a more nuanced explanation:
The key here is when did the contact took place? There's nothing wrong with Jared Kushner, who his a senior adviser to the President or the National Security Adviser having contact after the election. They were coming in. This is a transition. They meet with the Russians.
A transcript is below:
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CBS This Morning
3/3/17
7:09AM ETGAYLE KING: CBS News political director and Face the Nation moderater, that’s John Dickerson, joins us from Washington. Hello, John.
JOHN DICKERSON: Hello, Gayle.
KING: So now that Mr. Sessions has recused himself from this investigation, do you think that's enough for the administration to move forward and put it behind them?
DICKERSON: Well, the best way to probably move forward and put this behind them is for Donald Trump the keep following up on the promises he made on the campaign trail. But then also for there to stop being situations where you have people connected to the administration saying things that are at odds with the truth. You had, first Michael Flynn, the National Security Adviser, now the attorney general. And even though Attorney General Sessions is of a different order of Michael Flynn in terms of what he said, the job he's is one in which forthrightness is the most important part of the job and that’s the problem here is that he wasn’t forthright and he’s supposed to bend over backward and be forthright.
KING: No, we’re looking at a picture on the screen right now. It is like a song out of Empire. That drip, drip dripity drop where we just heard the President say, “No one I know has had contact.” But we see his son-in-law. We see the Attorney General. We see his former National Security Adviser and his former campaign manager.
DICKERSON: Well, the key here is when did the contact took place? There's nothing wrong with Jared Kushner, who his a senior adviser to the President or the National Security Adviser having contact after the election. They were coming in. This is a transition. They meet with the Russians. I mean, there are people who are obviously at odds with the way President Trump looks at the Russians from a national security perspective, but the contacts the election are not as big a deal as the contacts before the election and they're still reporting that former National Security Adviser Flynn was in contact with the Russians during the actual election. And that's really where the focus of the question is, in terms of whether anybody in the Trump transition or, sorry, the Trump campaign was involved in Russian meddling he election. That's different than contacts after the election took place.
ANTHONY MASON: John, some Democrats are calling for a special prosecutor here. Do you think with Republicans controlling Congress there is any chance of that.?
DICKERSON: Well, the special prosecutor would have to come from the Attorney General, now the acting Attorney General, excuse me the deputy Attorney General, because Jeff Session has recused himself. The only way that, seems to me, is going to happen is if the pressure comes from Republicans on the administration through future disclosures, if there is more that comes out that suggests that this needs to be looked at or if somehow the ongoing investigation is somehow tainted. So I think it’s still unlikely. But if these kinds of revelations keep rolling out, perhaps the pressure grows.
NORAH O’DONNELL: President Trump was elected by an electorate wanted change in Washington, the draining of the swamp. These stories, how much do they distract from, embattle the White House from what is a pretty aggressive agenda that they are trying to jump start just this month?
DICKERSON: Well, in terms of the people who voted for him, these stories are an irritant and don’t really distract from the White House. When President Trump is on an aircraft carrier talking about the $54 billion in defense and perhaps even more than that, $30 billion on top of that and goes to talk about school choice today. That’s what the people who elected him see and want and they think of this Russian business as just a confection of the press. Now, if you continue to have Republicans speaking out, that’s what changes the politics of this even more. Because you have people from the President’s own team saying, “Wait there’s something here. There’s more here. You need to be more forthright.” And that’s what breaks it out of the normal partisan sorting of what goes on with this sort of thing and that’s when it can become something that really gets in the way of the White House.
KING: John, thank you very much.
