Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Thursday defended Attorney General Jeff Sessions for failing to tell a Senate panel he met with the Russian ambassador twice in 2016.

The meetings with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak were a "nothing burger," Cruz said on MSNBC.

Cruz defends Sessions: "I think what we're seeing is a lot of political theater" https://t.co/wnIwWQDwbG pic.twitter.com/kp6gpuPNyB— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 2, 2017



"He was simply doing his job," said Cruz, who added that the political dustup is "nothing but political theater."

A Sessions spokeswoman has said the contact between the two was simply in the former senator's capacity as a senator and "member of the Armed Services Committee."

Cruz added that through he has never met with the Russian ambassador as a member of the Armed Services Committee, meeting with ambassadors is part of a senator's job.

"If the Russian ambassador had called and asked for a meeting, I imagine I'd [have] taken the meeting," he said, adding he's met with "six ambassadors in the last five months."