Democratic senator says she never met with Russian ambassador, but her own tweet contradicts claim

Sen. Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, faced scrutiny on Thursday after tweeting she had not met with Russian officials during the past 10 years - a statement that was contradicted by a tweet she wrote in January 2013 indicating that she was meeting with the Russian ambassador. 

McCaskill's tweet was in response to reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had two meetings with Russia's ambassador to the US during the 2016 campaign. Sessions had said during his confirmation hearing that he "did not have communications with the Russians" while he served as a campaign surrogate for Donald Trump.

In her tweet, McCaskill said she never met or had a phone call "ever" with the Russian ambassador during her 10 years on the Senate Armed Services Committee:

But tweets quickly unearthed appeared to contradict her claim:

McCaskill's apparently contradictory tweets raise questions about how frequently and under what circumstances lawmakers meet with foreign ambassadors. 

A spokesperson for the senator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democratic lawmakers demanded that Sessions resign from his position as attorney general, accusing him of lying to Congress and thus perjuring himself.

Republican leaders, including Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who leads the House Oversight Committee, also called for Sessions to recuse himself from overseeing an investigation into President Donald Trump and his administration's ties to the Russian government. 

Sessions slapped away suggestions that he should recuse himself from the investigation or resign from office. 

Bryan Logan contributed to this report.