Republicans Disagree On Sessions' Role in Potential Russia Probe

Republicans disagree on whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions should investigate allegations that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election. What lawmakers and others are saying:

• On Friday, California Rep. Darrell Issa told Bill Maher a special prosecutor should be appointed for the probe since Sessions is a Trump appointee and worked on Trump's campaign, the AP reports.
• On Sunday, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton told NBC's Meet the Press that it's "way, way getting ahead of ourselves" to talk about a special prosecutor, and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told Fox News that it's Sessions' "prerogative" to run the investigation under the Department of Justice and if he decides to do so, Lewandowski has the "utmost confidence" in him.

• Also on Sunday, the White House "dodged" the question of whether Sessions would recuse himself from a potential investigation, the AP reports. On ABC's This Week, deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would only say that it's not appropriate to discuss Sessions' potential role until congressional committees complete their own investigations into the matter.
• Democrats are pushing for an independent investigation into whether Russia communicated with Trump's campaign during the election, Reuters reports. Nancy Pelosi said Sessions must recuse himself from any such investigation.

(More Russia stories.)