More doubts in US politics

(Baonghean) - The hearing of the US Attorney General continues to stir up controversy in the country's political arena about 'whether or not there was Russian interference in the 2016 US election'.

The suspicions are not being cleared up but are growing. It is likely that other officials in the US government will have to testify.

Doubts remain

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the first senior official in President Trump's cabinet to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee. The hearing lasted about 2 and a half hours in an atmosphere considered to be full of tension with harsh questioning and responses. The hearing attracted the attention of the American public as well as the world because it is directly related to the two biggest controversies of President Donald Trump's administration.

The first is whether the Trump campaign team collaborated with Russia to help him win the presidency, and the second is the possibility that President Trump has obstructed justice. Although this is a hearing for Mr. Sessions, the main content is to clarify Mr. Sessions' views and assessments of the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US election as well as the conversations between former FBI Director James Comey and President Trump. In other words, it focuses on resolving the issues that Mr. Comey raised in his hearing before this very Committee last week.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a hearing on June 13. Photo: AFP

According to experts, the information from the hearing did not seem to clarify doubts about the relationship between President Trump, Russia and the FBI investigation. During the hearing, Mr. Sessions received four main questions: whether he had any meetings with Russian officials while serving as Attorney General, his relationship with President Trump's advisory team, why he decided to withdraw from the investigation and his role in the decision to fire the FBI director.

However, Mr. Sessions' answers were considered nothing new compared to what he had publicly stated before. Notably, Mr. Sessions spoke out to deny any conclusion that Russia interfered in the US presidential election and said that such accusations were "horrific and hateful lies". He also disappointed many congressmen, mostly Democrats, with evasive answers like "I don't remember" or "I'm not sure". This ambiguous answer, combined with Mr. Sessions' refusal to provide information about the content of the conversation with President Trump, further raised public suspicions that the White House was hiding something.

The President's reputation is down.

According to observers, although new developments were expected after the Attorney General's hearing, many people had predicted what would happen because Mr. Sessions was one of the first senators to support Mr. Trump in the presidential campaign last year. Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions also shared similar views on crime control and immigration. Therefore, the US Attorney General can be considered a "confident" of the White House owner. Therefore, Mr. Sessions's answers to questions seemed to benefit President Trump rather than "make things difficult".

However, with the answer not yet clarifying the doubts of many US congressmen, it is likely that many other officials in the administration will have to testify to serve the investigation of the scandal of Russian interference in the recent presidential election. That not only pushes the US political arena to more fierce debates but also causes more internal division.

Jeff Sessions was one of the first congressmen to support Mr. Trump in the presidential campaign. Photo: Washington Post

As for President Donald Trump, two consecutive hearings by the former FBI Director and the US Attorney General on issues directly related to the President personally have severely affected his reputation. According to the results announced by Gallup before the hearing of Attorney General Sessions, President Trump's reputation is showing a downward trend after increasing slightly compared to the early period of his term in office. Only 38% of respondents support the President, down 2% compared to the poll conducted before the hearing of the former FBI Director. The rate of opposition to Mr. Trump also increased similarly to 60%. Worse, the American public seems to trust Mr. Comey more than President Trump when this rate increased from 26% to 46% before and after the hearing.

Observers also raised the possibility of President Trump being impeached and removed from office, because if it is determined that Mr. Trump has obstructed the enforcement of the law, the US Congress can initiate impeachment proceedings. The President will be removed from office if the majority of the House of Representatives and then more than two-thirds of the Senate agree. However, this possibility is not high because the Republican Party, which currently controls both the Senate and the House of Representatives, does not seem to want to push this scandal too far.

However, if the scandal is not properly resolved, President Trump's personal image as well as the reputation of the Republican Party will be severely affected. In particular, in another new development, more than 190 US Democratic congressmen have sued President Donald Trump in federal court, accusing him of receiving money from foreign governments through his business without the consent of Congress, an act that violates the US Constitution.

It can be said that President Trump and the current administration are facing a lot of pressure, and there will certainly be many surprises and unpredictability in American politics in the coming days.

Thanh Huyen