The FBI, which the attorney general oversees, is reportedly investigating possible contact between Trump associates and Russian officials during the 2016 campaign, as well as the cyberattacks that targeted Democrats last year. On Wednesday night, The Washington Post first reported that Sessions, then a senator and Trump campaign adviser, had spoken twice last year with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. Yet at his January 10 confirmation hearing, when Senator Al Franken asked Sessions a question regarding possible contact between Trump associates and the Russian government, Sessions said: “I’m not aware of any of those activities.” He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

Sessions released a statement late Wednesday following the Post report: “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign,” it read. “I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.” In a brief exchange with NBC on Thursday morning, he reiterated that he had “not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign.” When asked about calls to recuse himself, he said, “I have said whenever it’s appropriate, I will recuse myself.”

The Post story prompted a spate of responses from Republican and Democratic legislators that continued into Thursday morning. Senator Ted Cruz said in an interview on MSNBC that a senior senator on the Armed Services Committee, as Sessions was, meeting with an ambassador is a “nothingburger.” He added that Sessions “should have been more clear” in his testimony, but “at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s any there there.” Senator Marco Rubio told NPR that the reason why Sessions didn’t disclose his meetings during the confirmation hearing is “important and needs to be addressed.”

Senator Lindsey Graham followed suit, saying on Twitter, “Sessions needs to explain his contacts with the Russian ambassador during his service as a Senator—that’s appropriate.” He said calls from Democratic lawmakers for Sessions to resign is “crazy.” And at a CNN town hall Wednesday, Graham said that if there was indeed “something there and it goes up the chain of investigation,” Sessions “cannot make this decision” on any next steps. Collins’s call for recusal is notable because she testified on Sessions’s behalf at his confirming hearing. In a statement Thursday, she said he “should recuse himself to ensure public confidence in the Justice Department’s investigation” and “clarify his statements to the Judiciary Committee with respect to his communications with the Russian ambassador.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan is among those, including the White House, who’ve so far dismissed suggestions that Sessions needs to immediately step aside from the investigation. When asked during a press briefing on Thursday if the attorney general should recuse himself, Ryan deferred reporters to the judiciary committee transcripts and Sessions’s own statement on the matter. Sessions said Thursday that “whenever it's appropriate, I will recuse myself.”