With the unfolding controversy surrounding Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri tweeted on Thursday to clarify to her followers that she’d never meet with a Russian ambassador.
Problem is, she did.
Sessions faces mounting pressure from Republicans and Democrats alike to step down reports revealed that he had met with Moscow representative twice during the 2016 election. Sessions served as a Trump campaign surrogate during the election. The former Republican senator is being accused of perjury after the revelations appear to conflict with the testimony given at his confirmation hearing testimony in January when he denied contact with Russian diplomats.
McCaskill, however, who was quick to take the moral high ground, is likely to be left red-faced. A quick search back through her Twitter account reveals that she was meeting with the Russian ambassador before it was cool, back in 2013 and 2015.
Following up the seeming contradiction, NBC’s Brad Jaffy spoke to McCaskill for comment. When confronted about the tweets, the Democrat admitted that she had attended a meeting “about international adoptions” at which Moscow’s representative was present—although she emphasized that the meeting “was not about the Russian ambassador.”
“I’ve never met with him one-on-one,” said McCaskill, clearing things up.
Here's Claire McCaskill's response after tweeting that she's never met with the Russian ambassador — when 4 years ago she tweeted she did. pic.twitter.com/8MJINEkR8W
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 2, 2017
McCaskill later told CNN that Twitter’s character limit was to blame:
McCaskill blamed Twitter limit on her tweet. "140 characters are tough. The word 'from' should have been in there but I didn't have room."
— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) March 2, 2017