Sen. Chuck Schumer is pictured talking Vladimir Putin in 2003. | Getty Trump mocks Schumer for eating doughnuts with Putin

President Donald Trump suggested “an immediate investigation” Friday into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s ties to Russia, appearing to make light of ongoing investigations into possible contacts between Trump associates and Kremlin officials.

“We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin,” Trump tweeted. “A total hypocrite!”


The post — which came via an iPhone, indicating that it came from a staffer rather than the president himself — included a 2003 Associated Press image of Schumer having coffee and Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New York. According to the caption, Putin was visiting the first New York gas station of Lukoil, a Russian company.

Schumer fired back at Trump via Twitter, saying he would “happily talk” about his contact with Putin and the Russian leader’s associates. It “took place in ’03 in full view of press & public under oath,” he said. “Would you &your team?”

Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in '03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you &your team? https://t.co/yXgw3U8tmQ — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 3, 2017

We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

According to a reverse image search, reports of the picture began resurfacing on Thursday, the same day Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he would recuse himself from any Justice Department investigations related to presidential campaigns.

“I have recused myself in the matters that deal with the Trump campaign,” he told reporters Thursday, adding in a DOJ statement that his recusal goes for “any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaign for president of the United States.”

Schumer had called on Sessions to resign from his post as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer after reports emerged Wednesday that the then-Alabama senator had failed to disclose two prior meetings last year with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during his confirmation hearings.

A Trump aide tweeted the AP image on Thursday in response to a Schumer tweet in which the New York Democrat said “we have an obligation to get to the truth” and “must evaluate the scope of Russia’s interference in our election.”

Dan Scavino, the White House’s social media director, tweeted back the shot of Schumer and Putin, adding the commentary: “do it over a donut and coffee.”

Trump’s tweet was blasted out shortly before he landed in Florida. The president is scheduled to participate in a meet-and-greet at Saint Andrew Catholic School in Orlando. He will also tour the school and participate in a “parent-teacher conference listening session.”

In a statement released by the White House late Thursday, Trump said Sessions is an “honest man” who did nothing wrong.

“He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional,” he said. “This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election, and now they have lost their grip on reality.”

He concluded by calling the “real story … all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information.” The outcry over Sessions’ undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador, he said, “is a total ‘witch hunt!’”



Lawmakers react to Trump's Russia ties