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Senator Calls Sessions' Russia Denials a Jedi Mind Trick

Is Attorney General Jeff Sessions using the Force to distract Americans from Russia's connection to the Trump Administration?
Image: Angus King
Senate Armed Services Senate Committee member Sen. Angus King, I-Maine questions Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, during the committee's hearing on the ongoing mission in the war-torn country.J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Is Attorney General Jeff Sessions using the Force to distract Americans from Russia's connection to the Trump Administration?

Maine Senator Angus King, an Independent, said the attorney general's denial of improper contact with a Russian official is similar to a Jedi mind trick from Star Wars.

“The denials remind me of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first Star Wars," King said on MSNBC Friday. "Remember where he says, 'These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,' and they go on by?"

King cautioned that the slow drip of information around Trump's supposed ties to Russia could only add to the sense of wrongdoing and ultimately be more damaging.

"It’s in the interest of the President and the people around him to get this all out," he said.

King joins a growing list of senators across the political spectrum who are calling on Sessions to return to the Judiciary Committee and testify under oath about his Russian ties.

Sessions has said that his meetings with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, were as part of his role on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Related: Adviser Once Linked to Trump Campaign Confirms He Met Russian Envoy

"I'm on the Armed Services Committee as well, and my phone didn't ring during that period," said King.

"I can’t judge what was in the Russian ambassador’s head at that time, but he’s probably not oblivious to the fact that Senator Sessions was a close adviser to the guy who might become President of the United States."

Sessions was the first prominent senator to endorse Trump for president and a vocal surrogate during the campaign.