WASHINGTON — Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue took to the floor Thursday to point out that 30 Democratic senators met with the Russian ambassador in 2015 to pitch President Obama’s nuclear Iran deal, all while openly supporting Democratic presidential candidates.

In an effort to defend former senator and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions from accusations that he lied to Congress about his communications to a Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign, Perdue went after his colleagues for “slandering” a former member of the upper chamber.

He noted, “We have literally reached a point where members of this body are slandering former colleagues for having and taking the same opportunities afforded to them.”

Perdue went on to say, “This morning my colleague, the senior senator from Missouri [Claire McCaskill], tweeted that she had never, ever, met with or taken a call from the Russian Ambassador. But her own Twitter account proved that she has at least twice in the last four years.”

Sessions served on the Senate Armed Services Committee with Perdue and Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who found herself making conflicting statement about her contacts with the Russian ambassador.

“Thirty members, as a matter of fact, of this body met with the Russian Ambassador and ambassadors from other nations in 2015 for a sales pitch on President Obama’s deal with Iran. Many of them — including the senior senator from Missouri — were open supporters at that time of candidates in the presidential race,” he said.

The Huffington Post reported in early August 2015, Senate Democratic staff invited three undecided Democrats on the Iran nuclear deal Democrats along with other members of their caucus to meet with the ambassadors of Russia, England, France, China and Germany in the capitol.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, according to HuffPo, organized the Iran nuclear deal briefings for his Democratic colleagues that included meeting the ambassadors.

The presentations were strong enough to convince the three undecideds to come around and overcome a Republican filibuster of the Iran deal.

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